Fatal Attraction
by JeffC FTW
Summary: He was a disgrace and a traitor to his own kind, so they banished him to the one place where he is despised. But his world turned upside down when he met her, who had her share of down luck. But love was the greatest fear they ever had - yet neither could resist the other's charm. Keevan/OC
1. Chapter 1

**My newest Keevan story is a little twist with a childhood classic, "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial", and named after one of the greatest movies of all time starring Michael Douglas and Glenn Close. Only this time, some time after the Dominion War came to an end, Keevan remains ever a dislike amongst his people for his rebelliousness and is therefore exiled no differently than Garak had been from his own homeworld - and with an even deadlier secret that he hides from everyone who hates him. However, his life changes when he meets the daughter of Deep Space 9's new tailor.**

 **I own nothing but my main OC and a couple other minor ones.**

Chapter One

He was a disgrace to his own kind, they said. A traitor to the gods he served.

They banished him. Cast him away instead of executing him like they always would to many of his people - many of whom did not look upon him with affection either. Well, he cared not. Not anymore.

He had long ago given up any hope of love. Love, he was told, did not exist, that it was only a story to give to the foolish. Without it, you were never weak.

He knew he was different from the other Vorta the moment his first incarnation was activated, that there was something - _everything_ \- wrong with the Dominion. The Founders could not have been gods, because what gods hated their children and punished them at all times, expected them to serve and nothing else? Expected them to give their lives over and over as punishment, with the memory of their past failures and mistakes?

It was torture.

That was why Keevan intended to live despite being in only his first incarnation. Despite it being "glory to the Founders", as the Jem'Hadar would say. _Obedience brings victory - and victory is life._

 _Victory is life_...that could be interpreted in many different forms. It could mean that life was meant to be precious and worth living, or it could mean that life had many rewards for you. Either way, there were so many things Keevan felt like he had to accomplish - hadn't he served the Founders well that he did not deserve to be treated like this?

His predecessor was supposed to activate his termination implant when he surrendered to Starfleet, but he didn't. He would have been executed if the Ferengi successfully returned him, and Yelgrun got himself captured for it. Perhaps he should say he had been spared the death penalty at the order of the Founder - but now, in his second life, he fared no better. No matter his incarnation, he was a mocking failure of a Field Supervisor. Simple as that.

Now the Armistice between the Dominion and the Federation had been signed, and peace was secured, although life within his own people fared no better. Keevan had thought this would mark the beginning of a new era for the Vorta, but he had been a fool. And as punishment, the Founders no longer saw him as a worthy agent and exiled him from the Gamma Quadrant.

He was given no Jem'Hadar to accompany him, no fellow Vorta to join him - he was alone. Alone with only the clothes on his back, his nutritions that were specified for his tastes, and his little communication system to personalize anywhere he would be.

None other than Deep Space 9. Where everyone would know what his people did no matter being the Founders' orders - and despise him.

~o~

She hummed softly to herself as she ran the tricorder over the hemline of the latest colorful dress and made sure there were no threads left - until her mother scolded her from the back.

"Vera, that's the third time today I had to tell you that your singing drives me crazy!"

She rolled her eyes. "Sorry, Mom." Still, it was a never-ending minor battle ever since she and her mother decided to move in together after both their divorces a year ago, which was one year after the war between the Federation and the Dominion came to a drawing close. Her father remained on Earth while she and her mother, Norah, moved to Deep Space 9 following the former Cardassian tailor returning to help rebuild what was left of his home planet that had once been conquered by the Dominion. Vera Coleman herself had a lack of a direction in her life, something she and her parents disagreed on from time to time, calling her a wild call girl because she loved to go out with just random men and aliens instead of taking anything seriously.

She had been married before, or had they forgotten? After a year, they divorced because of his unfaithfulness, which her father, Colonel Jonathan Coleman, disagreed with because of southern beliefs of staying married no matter what happened. He was never the most supportive of fathers, which was why Vera had not spoken to him since her split and why her mother left him, because she had been forced to choose between her husband and daughter. Norah tried to be the best mother she could be while Vera did the best she could, working in the tailor shop with her mother because she happened to love making clothing because it was a stress-reliever.

Sometimes she could not say the same for her mother.

"Lt. Dax will be here soon, or have you forgotten?" Norah Coleman asked as she came out form the back with a new Bajoran uniform done, ready for Colonel Kira herself. Vera had to say she felt intimidated every time she met the commander of the station ever since its last one, Captain Benjamin Sisko, went missing in action. But Kira Nerys was very courteous, telling her and her mother that they might lighten the place up since Garak, a longtime comrade of hers, had returned home to rebuild it.

"No, Mom, I did not," Vera replied; the client of this garment in her hands would be here soon to collect. "Is the dress ready for her?" Ezri Dax, the station's counselor, was tying the knot in a month with Dr. Julian Bashir; the two of them were the first real friends she actually made in the entire place, besides the Ferengi bartender Quark, whose bar she visited twice a week after work. Her mother yelled back yes, and in time for another voice to chip in.

"About time, too!"

"Ezri, you came!" Vera said, finishing the touches and walking around the table to greet the lieutenant. "It's all set for you. Just how have you been?"

"Never better. And to think I didn't think marriage was on my list, but I'm happy to marry Julian. I never get tired of saying that," she added with a laugh, pointing a finger into Vera's face. When she looked down, Vera found herself looking at the ring around the Trill's finger from the good doctor; it was incredible and clear, the middle diamond surrounded with spirals of smaller ones resembling a supernova in space. Befitting since they all lived in space. Dax had been through eight hosts in the lifetimes; Ezri was the latest, so she would be the fourth bride while there had been two grooms. She had made the right decision to marry a genetically enhanced physician while the Dax before her had tied the knot with a Klingon. Quark had done the deed in entertaining her with the stories of his history of complaints of the intermarriage.

"Lieutenant, you're going to be a wonderful bride," Norah said with a beaming smile as she brought out the garment bag from the bag and held it onto a rack so she could pull the zipper down the front. When she revealed it to the bride herself, Ezri was blown away. The bodice was strapless, covered with an elaborate pattern of crystals and beads, stopping at the waistline and flaring out with an ethereal white fabric. Ezri looked like she was trying not to cry as she tried to imagine Julian's face when he saw her coming to him.

Seeing Ezri's face took Vera back to when she first got married, and it was extremely bittersweet for her.

Her mother had made the dress for her; it had been dramatic and sophisticated silk-satin, smooth and billowing with little lines of lace and crystals down the bodice, made her feel like a woman at eighteen years old. She'd been young and hopeful for the future as she wished she could have done something better with her life, but her father always knew how to destroy her self-esteem. Now she wasn't sure what to do with her life now; all she wondered was if she would ever get married again and work out for sure this time.

The three women - her mother, Dax and herself - all turned their heads in the direction of the doorway at the sound of angry shouting on the Promenade.

They gathered at the doorway and looked over to see everything that was going on. A crowd had gathered in the middle of the Promenade at one of the newest residents coming on board, yelling and roaring obscenities and offenses, and Vera could have sworn she caught phrases like "You don't belong here!"

Another was clear enough: "Your people ordered the deaths of so many of our own!"

Most of all: "You served shape-shifting monsters!"

From her knowledge of all of this and the Dominion War, a _Vorta_ had arrived aboard Deep Space 9.

"Alright, people, that is enough!" Colonel Kira had arrived, shouting for everyone to back away from the individual, with the security staff coming in and pushing the angry mob away. "There's been enough blood spilled," Kira said angrily to them all, "so leave this to me! If Captain Sisko were here, he would have been severely disappointed in all of you as much as I am!"

"Excuse me," Ezri whispered to Vera and her mother, "but I'll come back and get my dress later. Duty calls." Norah agreed, but Vera barely heard and instead focused on the _incredible_ creature that had almost been beaten by the mob. Some things never changed. When Captain Benjamin Sisko was still here, as well as the shape-shifter Odo who had been the last chief of security, order had been intact, but some people believed just because they were no longer here, they could do what they wanted.

The Vorta was male, avoiding eye contact with anyone but still holding himself high; it didn't look like he brought much of anything with him other than food, limited as it was. The sight was almost sad. His face was soft and delicate, not the manly form that her first husband had been - and her breath caught when she saw pale skin, full lips not even smiling, smooth cheekbones, elongated ears ridged along the sides and a thick mane of silky-looking black curls. She had never seen a Vorta before, only heard about them and that they were master tricksters, manipulative and cunning...

...but someone failed to mention _seductive._

"Vera, we have to get back to work," her mother whispered to her. "Leave the colonel to take care of that."

She followed Norah back into the shop, but found she was unable to stop thinking about that strange creature who had just arrived.

~o~

"Keevan. Dr. Bashir filled me in about you."

"Colonel Kira Nerys. Finally an honor to meet you," he said sarcastically as he leaned back in his chair, back still high and head tilted as he crossed one leg over the other, looking up at the woman in command after the late Captain Sisko, rest him. Keevan remembered him respectfully even if the man loathed him for his own Jem'Hadar.

"What happened, the Dominion sent you over here to spy on us?" the Bajoran sneered, though her face was straight. He chuckled.

"Not likely. I don't work for them anymore. I've been exiled here to Deep Space 9."

She snorted and sat down across from him, mimicking the leg crossing. "Just like Garak from Cardassia? What did you do this time? Have more of your Jem'Hadar traded to save your life again?" she asked, fist flat on the table surface.

Keevan pursed his lips; why he was here, he should say was none of her business, but she was the commanding officer of this station. "I'm not a favorite amongst my people. You know my record too well, shouldn't you? I'm only in my second incarnation, but the Founders chose not to execute me. Instead, they thought a fate far worse than death for me, so they sent me here. I've...protested that my people deserve freedom now that the war is over. For a year I have done so, but the Vorta are too loyal to the Founders; they can never get it through that they are NOT gods." He felt his lip curl in disgust. "But I have."

"So they send you to live amongst people who hate yours. They might as well be laughing about you now," Kira stated, a small smile forming that he was inclined to spit upon.

"I see we understand each other. But if no one will welcome me, then where do you recommend for me to live out the rest of my miserable immortal life?" Keevan asked smoothly. "By now, the entire Alpha Quadrant will leave me to starve and rot, not that I frankly give a damn. It's ironic, is it not, Colonel?"

He gave an obscene smile when he saw her posture go rigid that she thought he was trying to play her so she could give him a place of residence, but he was not - or maybe he was. All he wanted was a safe place to live, maybe make the best of what he could. He was supposed to carry himself out into his new life like he used to amongst his Jem'Hadar and fellow Vorta. He was not going to let himself be weak amongst these hateful others around him.

"I suppose," Kira said finally. "You did everything to survive while your comrades gave their own lives up and your Jem'Hadar for slaughter."

"That's all they live for, in case you forgot not that long ago," he said, infuriated. "They live to serve and die, nothing more. And the Vorta trade their lives over and over until terminated permanently. I cannot do that. Death for all eternity? Could you yourself or any others you care about live like that? That is one thing you Federation people will never understand about the Vorta."

She nodded. "You're right. I wish I did entirely." Kira rose then. "I'll see what I can do to arrange quarters for you. Though I'll warn you that there isn't going to be a warm welcome until you find a way to get everyone to soften around you."

Keevan tried not to laugh. "As if I need to be reminded. Thank you, Colonel; you are most gracious." She snorted and turned her back to him, calling for the security team to take him.

~o~

By the time the day ended, Vera returned back to her own quarters which were also three doors down from her mother's. She was a legal adult now and did not need to live with her mother forever, but she also needed to live close enough to check on her when she could. Ever since divorcing herself as well, Norah Coleman had struggled to find someone new because of her age. She was only forty-three and still striking. Vera liked to think that she could get another man if she wanted to.

As for herself, she might still be young, but she wasn't planning on falling in love again anytime soon because the first time did not work out.

Just as she arrived and was about to settle in for the evening, she heard noises outside. Frowning, she walked back to her door and peeked through the crack she made with her own hands - and outside, across the hall and directly in front of her, she saw the very same Vorta opening the door to his _new quarters_. The outcast was moving in and across from her.

He paused, back turned to her, but his head tilted around as if sensing he was being watched...and then his head whipped around, glaring directly at her invading his privacy. Heart panicking, she quickly closed the door and pressed her back against the wall, taking deep breaths to try and calm herself down.

He'd _seen_ her. The Vorta saw her!

What could she say or do now?

What was _he_ going to do?

Maybe he would simply ignore her and leave her be. Something about him intimidated her so; maybe it was because of the way his strange eyes had caught hers. They were wide and round, clear as a sky but a bluish shade of purple. She had never seen such eyes before, looking at her and trying to read her...

She shook her head. Her stomach was excited and beyond her control and disbelief. He wasn't even welcomed anyways, so even if she WAS interested in him, her mother might not even approve. But she was a grown woman who could make her own choices.

Vera found herself staring into the mirror as she changed for the night after her sonic shower. Her hair was a rustic shade of red, like her mother's, but unlike Norah's mid-shoulder-length mane which she always held up very tight behind her head, Vera's was three inches past her shoulder, curling at the ends and straight all the way up. Her eyes were blue while Norah had hazel ones. But both women had the same ivory skin and full, naturally dark rosy lips and full bust, complete with hourglass figures.

She dressed herself into a knee-length peasant shirt, soft red and matching her hair, and smooth silk. She also did not have it in her to take off her jewelry at bed besides cleaning up. Her necklace that she wore every day were of five smooth beads on a band of woven gold chords, close to her throat; the bracelet snugged her wrist, without the beads but the same mesh chording. Finally, there was her favorite ring on her middle right finger; it was given to her as a birthday present by her father long ago, saying one day she would find the perfect man to spend her life with who would satisfy the entire family, the symbolism in the two moonstones on an intricate golden band ironic enough. She and her father might not speak anymore, but she did not have it in her to remove this last piece of him.

Now that she found herself looking at it again as she laid down on the bed, she wondered once more if another was out there. Someone who would never abandon her. Someone who would never cheat her. Someone who would not treat her as second-hand or a transaction. Someone who would never take her for granted.

Someone who would be there for her always.

 **The story behind Vera's broken marriage and disapproving father was based off of the one of a second-time bride in an episode of "Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta" - called "Ties That Bind" - in which her mother was being forced to choose between her daughter and husband, but in the end she ended up not going to the wedding which is definitely one of the biggest mistakes she's ever made, as it is with the case of mothers who don't go to their daughters' weddings.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Reviews are appreciated throughout the course. :)**

Chapter Two

He was not sure if he could tell if he liked his new quarters or not; the appearance did not matter, but rather what it offered him. All Keevan needed was a replicator, a sonic shower, and a bed to sleep. He had no more friends to contact, marking him as a loner. He felt his stomach rumble, telling him that he needed something to eat, and that was all he could think of. He walked over to the replicator and asked for anything from the fruit selection. When asked to specify fruits, he asked for berries.

 _"Please specify."_

He almost rolled his eyes. There was an assortment to choose from, and because of his lack of taste, he would have to settle on what was provided in the replicator. No taste was no enjoyment at all. "Red berries," was all he said, and the dish shimmered before him. This was all he could think of because of how his people fasted. There were two types of red berries, one strawberry and the other raspberry. He'd done research on them. The former was a form of triangular with little yellow spots, and a very bright red. The other was smaller and formed with balls, softer and said to be that much sweeter. In his mind, the latter seemed more delectable. Keevan took his plate over to the sofa and sat down, finally relaxing and enjoying his peace - but no peace in his own mind.

What would he be doing here, to keep himself stable and working? He'd imagine nothing at all; who would be willing to accept him? He was a field operative, spying and negotiating in his life, but here, no one would be willing to give him a sophisticated position. If he was lucky, he'd end up serving in a restaurant or at that Ferengi's bar - how could he forget Quark and his unlikely little team? - or maybe nothing at all. He'd be in his quarters all day, going insane. If not, and even if he were allowed to enjoy himself, then he would always get those spiteful comments and looks, although he'd avoided eye contact before. He never let anyone or anything bother him before.

He knew he could not interact well with Colonel Kira, much less engage in conversation with her again. If not her, then who? Damn the Ferengi who could remind him of the past for his own amusement. Dr. Bashir might be kind to his patients, but he could converse with Keevan with chilled civility, although the Vorta had no idea about the doctor's Trill fiancée, Dax. She always smiled, but who knew if it was forced for the other's sake.

It seemed there were few to none he could actually trust.

But how about his nosy neighbor across the hall he sensed watching him?

Whoever lived there, it made him angry that they had the gall to watch him and gloat to themselves. But he would not just go over there and order them at a random time. The being living there might as well be laughing about him to themselves right at this very moment. In that case, he wanted absolutely nothing to do with him or her.

Suicide was not an option on his watch, either. His predecessor was supposed to do so when he surrendered. Taking his own life meant he would never be given a third chance to live, but what would his life be worth now?

~o~

She wasn't working today, and it had been five days since she last saw the Vorta. She'd heard he was around, but not causing any trouble. If anything, he was aimlessly wandering around examining everything and everyone, not doing anything for himself exactly. He was described to be aloof and arrogant, keeping his nose raised and not bothering to smile at anyone, not even to those who called out a greeting. She could not ask her mother about this because Norah would snort and continue on with business. "What business is our own; his does not matter to us."

Vera had it in her to talk to Julian Bashir as it turned out he knew the Vorta. A few years ago, in the early months of the Dominion War, he and Captain Sisko along with the crew suffered a damaged warp core whilst under attack from Jem'Hadar and crashed on a planet behind a dark matter nebula - where it turned out another Jem'Hadar unit and their injured Vorta leader were also stranded.

"His name is Keevan," Julian had said grimly as he shared lunch with her and Ezri that day. "His men's supply of ketracel-white was low, and once it was gone, the Jem'Hadar would have turned against us all and then each other. He...set his own soldiers up to be killed so his own life was saved."

"But what about you, the captain and the others?" Vera asked over her Tarkalean tea. "Couldn't that have been a form of saving you, too?" The Vorta were manipulative and loyal to the enemy, marking them as so, but she tried to think of it as that way - and she didn't even _know_ this one other than what the doctor explained to her. He'd even been disgusted at the dirty business of killing soldiers in a situation private from the eyes of the war outside that planet. That hadn't even been a real, legal fight.

What did she know about war, anyway, besides the fact she was a colonel's daughter?

He had been exiled from his people because he wasn't loyal enough, that was what Ezri also told her, having learned it from Kira. He was living a life without a direction now; all the Vorta were clones, practically immortal. On Earth, where she was from, cloning a person was illegal. But nowadays, anything could happen. Vera could not stop thinking about Keevan ever since laying her eyes on him, hearing his story, as well as seeing him alone and judged on this very station - surrounded by people who hated him. Nearly the same case as Elim Garak, the Cardassian spy turned tailor who had gone back to rebuild what was left of his home planet after the Dominion and the Breen did their works.

Another of Vera's skills was baking. It soothed her whenever she had a bad day, or to welcome someone else into the neighborhood, as it had been back on Earth. Some traditions were best not forgotten. Now was a pie made of peaches; peach was perfect because it was native in her home state. But what if Keevan did not like this simple kind gesture? She had no way of knowing until she brought it to him.

The Vorta was isolated, might as well choose to hide himself from the rest of the world. But being in one place too long could drive you mad. All Vera Coleman wanted to do was make him feel welcome, because that was her heart was made for - with the exception of falling in love again. She just stood there before his quarters' door for a moment, her heart beating fast with anxiety. Now that she thought of it, she had no idea what to say once she made eye contact with him like the first night. She might as well have given him a bad first impression by spying on him by accident.

Her hand made its own decision and pressed the buzzer beside the door, holding the pie in one hand before returning it to both hands. The door opened and allowed her to go inside after its owner called for her to come in. When she did, she looked around, not spotting anyone right away until she saw _him_ standing in front of her. He looked over her with that same aloof, disinterested expression, one eyebrow raised as he looked her over.

"May I help you?"

A part of Vera wanted to shy away, but she forced herself to remain as she was. Here she was in a turquoise-colored dress hugging some parts of her body and stopping a little past her knees, with little flower details over the front with no exaggeration, the sleeves as long as three quarters, and her hair was wild, both her hands holding her grandmother's peach pie as she stood before him - and now she was at a loss for words. How could she be so stupid? But it was too late to turn back now.

Keevan cleared his throat, tilting his head to the side as he impatiently waited. He seemed to despise everyone. "I-I'm sorry," Vera said quickly, taking a step back. "I live across the hall and saw you arrive, f-f-five days ago. I know nothing was...easy for you." She gulped, feeling like a stupid idiot, his amethyst eyes hardening and narrowing, wanting her to get to the point. "I wanted to be the first to welcome you warmly to Deep Space 9." With that, Vera held out the pie she personally made without her mother's help, finally taking a couple steps forward until she stood three feet's length from him. Her arms quivered, threatening to drop two hours' hard work in front of him.

Keevan's eyes darted between her face and the pastry, face unchanged. The longer the silence went, the harder the tension increased. Vera decided she had enough.

"Y-you know, I'll just leave it here and be on my way. I'm sorry I even bothered you." She set it down on the glass table quickly and turned for the door - but then he stopped her.

"Don't go."

Vera froze, her back still facing him that she could feel his eyes burning into hers. She considered going ahead on out because she felt embarrassed enough as it was, but she doubted the Vorta would like that. She was a human, and she was an easy target for him. He must secretly be enjoying that, making her madder. "Turn around and look at me, please," he ordered, though his tone was softer. She turned around finally, looking at his face. His scowl had faded, but he was still looking her over with those alluring eyes of his. His face possessed a calm, collected sense of strange physical attractiveness that you would not find every day. His skin shimmered like a pearl as his eyes were like the rarest shade of purple gems. His ridged ears stretched upwards, vanishing into his wildly blooming dark curly hair, gracefully curving as the rest of his body appeared to be so underneath all of those clothes...

She stopped herself right away. She had not had these thoughts in a long while, but that was so wrong because she had just met this man! But the thought was already imprinted into her mind.

"What is your name?" he asked her. His voice was an irresistible purr, velvety to the senses.

"Vera," she answered softly. "Vera Coleman. I'm the tailor's daughter."

"Tailor's daughter?" He chuckled and shook his head, putting his hands on his hips, now walking to stand before her. "Why would the tailor's daughter be interested in me, hm? A former servant of the enemy."

He was accusing her of coming here out of a simple sense of naïve curiosity. Her anger bubble was threatening to burst at the accusation. She glared up at him, lifting her nose. "Why shouldn't I be, Keevan? You think I have another agenda? Why not the fact that everyone else hates you and that I might as well be the only one who welcomes you here. I saw how everything has been for you that it sickened me. I know what it's like to not be appreciated, and making someone happy is what makes me happy."

"Pleasing others is bad for the health," Keevan said coolly, a small smile tugging a corner of his mouth. "I've been there and done that."

By serving monsters and people he was forced to trade his life for over and over, disregard his own personal feelings altogether. She could see it all, and how grateful he should be for finally getting away from them. Vera stiffened when he leaned over and inhaled through his nostrils, the sound audible. "You smell very..." He leaned closer, his nose grazing against her neck, and she gasped softly at the unexpected contact. His skin, even if it was just the tip of his nose, felt silky smooth that she wanted more of it on her own. This was all going against her vow to not get with another man again. "...mmmm, refined."

Vera could not help but laugh nervously. Refined? That was the best word he could say? "You want to know what I smell?" Keevan asked huskily. How had he gone from hard and hostile to curious and insatiable so quickly? She nodded. "Lush greenery, amber, and white flowers. Very nice." He pulled his head back and looked down at her in the eyes. His purple irises glowed pleasantly. "You're not afraid of me, are you, Vera?"

"No."

"Good. Would you be afraid if I asked you to stay a little longer? It appears I now find your presence comforting."

~o~

For the next three weeks, Keevan found that the company of the tailor's daughter wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. He had consciously tried to push her away because he felt he didn't need her companionship. To know she lived across the hall from him - and the fact it was _she_ who stuck her nose into his space the first night was burning irritation to his nerves - annoyed him to no end. She had the nerve to come see him a few days later, presenting nothing but a piece of pastry with the foolish thought he'd be the least bit interested...until she put her foot down in front of him and called him back for shoving her away, stating she knew what he was feeling.

At first, Keevan had considered snapping back that she knew nothing about being exiled, until he had stood so close to her, her scent catching him off altogether. Vorta had excellent sense of smell as hearing, so most aromas turned him off, but with Vera Coleman...it was enticing, to say the least. Somehow, he had been inclined to accept she was only giving him, as she put it, a "warm, southern welcome". It was a saying on Earth, in the deep south, where she was born and grew up. Her very presence soothed the rough edges he carried about himself. He knew that he might not ever get another opportunity like this again, so he might as well seize it now.

He had been surprised that she'd baked him what her people called a pie. It was made of peaches, a native fruit of her homeland. He hadn't tasted it, but he enjoyed the feel of it in his mouth. "This is...filling," was all he could say as soon as they both cleared the platter off, their time in his quarters having lasted a long time that he lost track of, and so did she. She'd laughed when she picked the dish up and brought it over to the sink.

"Filling? Is that all? What about the flavor?"

He'd shrugged as he watched her behind. "I'm afraid to disappoint you, Vera," he'd said, skipping the formalities altogether. "My people lack taste as well as a sense of beauty. It's how the Founders made us to be."

She had turned her head halfway around, but it was enough for Keevan to see the shock on her face. "So you can't enjoy anything tasteful or eye it as well as savor it that way?"

He'd nodded. "Nothing aesthetic. Service overrode everything else. It's hell, now that my time here beyond the Gamma Quadrant has proven that. It's why I'm not a favorite amongst my people; I want more than any Vorta ever wanted, as well as what was best for them. Ever since the war ended, I saw this as an opportunity for the beginning of a new era, as Odo - one of the long-lost so-called gods - returned to the Great Link, the home of the shape-shifters, to usher a new Dominion. So we were told. But my voice apparently was not important; I was still a lowly Vorta, even remembered for the fiasco with Benjamin Sisko and my Jem'Hadar unit. As a final resort, as well as my refusal to give my life over and over, I was exiled here to Deep Space 9. I might as well not deserve happiness, but I have no choice in the matter." He had leaned back and looked up at the ceiling, exhaling. He didn't care about her response at the moment until she finally spoke.

"The way I see it, no one deserves punishment no matter what they do - but murder would be an exception. But it's not like you had your own hand in it."

Keevan had snorted. "No, but I ordered it done."

"But from what I heard," Vera had returned, "you and the Federation team were in a do or die situation. What could you have done if the white had run out, and you all were left for slaughter by crazy Jem'Hadar?"

Those were his words exactly, and he began to feel his discomfort fade away at that point. She might not be experienced as he was, but at least she was slowly beginning to understand him more than anyone else ever did.

He began to see her after that day for the next three weeks, coming to her mother's tailor shop to watch her work or to learn about the art of various exotic clothing techniques. The sad fact was he could not mend or stitch a fabric, much to her mother's disapproval. He knew that Norah Coleman loathed him on the spot, but that did not stop him from wanting to be around her daughter. Vera was a woman who did not live with her any longer, could come and go as she pleased. Keevan would gladly take her mother's place any day if he had to.

However, during that time as well as when it came to the arrival of Dr. Bashir and Lt. Dax's wedding which took place on Earth, in a country called Ireland which was overlapped with green and hills - and on a cliff overlooking the sea where it was a picturesque environment for the attending guests, himself and Vera included - he found himself suddenly fascinated with the marriage rituals an the binding of two people for eternity, something his own culture lacked because of the Founders. He could not remember ever being drawn to someone the way Bashir and Dax were to each other. He could never forget the look in their eyes or the kiss they had when they became husband and wife.

He remembered days ago when he had first learned Vera had been married once before, when she was younger than she was now. "We got divorced a year ago," she'd said, eyes glazing over. "He wasn't...faithful, and I remember being nothing but a good wife to him. We'd known each other since we were teenagers, but I still don't know what happened. My father did not approve of the separation because of a good southern wife supposed to stay with her husband through thick and thin. He never supported me my entire life." She'd leaned into him then, wanting some form of bodily contact, and Keevan had gulped when he wrapped his arms around her given he had no words to console her.

But when she did, Keevan's body thrummed as if being turned on like machinery. His system enjoyed the heat, but he didn't. It scared him, the memory of physical and emotional contact called weaknesses. He had forced himself away from Vera then, not looking at her when he apologized - "I'm sorry," he'd stammered, backing for the door, "but I can't. I can't do this!" - and ran when she tried to call after him. He had hurt her feelings, hurt her when she needed him the most. All humans relied on the need for emotional and physical comfort, but not a Vorta...

But his body and memory could never forget the delicious but forbidden sizzle in his flesh and blood.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Why did he run away from her?

Vera closed her eyes to keep the tears in as best she could as her insides wrenched with hurt. Sobs wrenched her esophagus as she remembered a few days ago when Keevan ran away when she held onto him and cried as she spoke of her cheating husband and unsupportive father. Every man in her life always seemed to abandon her, and now _he_ did then! Were all men the same; were they _really_ cowards?!

She and Keevan had not seen or spoken to each other, nor did he come to see her at the shop, which made her mother thoroughly pleased. "Good heavens, that man is nothing but a spook to our customers and myself," Norah said as she waved herself with her hand as a makeshift fan. She had always criticized Vera's choice of man or boy in the past, so now she made her daughter snap.

"You don't even know him, Mother," she said frostily as she stitched the tunic of a Bolian male.

"Watch your tone with me," Norah warned. "And who says I need to know that creature? Just because he pays us visits does not mean he is on my favorites list. He hasn't even improved as an impression amongst anyone on this station."

Knowing better than to argue with her mother, Vera gritted her teeth and went back to work, although she wished she could have said something better. Keevan was more human than anyone thought he was, but everyone condemned him because he was different. How DARE they! If she had the power, she'd make them understand. As a consequence, she almost pricked her finger and bled on the precious fabric. If Norah saw this, she would scream like she burned in hell.

Keevan on her mind was the reason for the distraction. She had told Ezri about this, girl between girl, and explained how the Vorta were unable to enjoy anything that regular beings did, not surprising the Trill enough. "I heard," Dax said over raktajino. "Vorta don't take anything free or make themselves happy. He stayed with you longer than he wanted to because you just wanted a shoulder to cry on; there's never anything wrong with that. But for someone who spent the majority of his lives serving monsters, that's understandable that he would get scared if he...enjoyed it unexpectedly."

It was as if a strain of an awkward silence had overcome the air of the entire replimat as Vera felt herself shrink. Dax's words settled onto her as much as she wanted to shove it aside and not accept like the silly schoolgirl she used to be. _He enjoyed it expectedly...he enjoyed it...ENJOYED IT..._

Keevan _enjoyed_ holding her!

She was on the verge of collapsing as the possible truth came to light. Keevan must have found some part of himself to hold her of his own free will instead of following the code of no emotional attachment that he had surrendered to. But then it made him panic and run because he had no idea how to face it. She supposed she could understand that much, but it still hurt and made her angry that he took off when she needed him in that moment. He had been the nearest form of comfort she had.

Ezri noticed her expressionless face and swallowed. "Maybe I shouldn't have said anything; I see you're not comfortable with this."

"I really don't know," Vera said softly. "I just...needed someone there, that's all. But what about him? He might not even remember what his original DNA donator was like, or even been with someone - maybe never knew what it was like to love someone period. He doesn't know how to do this, and he knows I'm not ready to love, too."

"But you two do seem to like each other. There's nothing ashamed about that."

Ezri WAS right; she did like Keevan, he was handsome and arrogant but at the same time very gentle, but she still didn't know why he was so afraid of touch and emotion. She knew that meant seeing him again, but how do you start a conversation when you hadn't spoken in days, which hadn't ended good? "Setting you guys up won't be a good idea," Ezri said when she spoke this. "I would say go straight for it and invite him over to your quarters. Ask him straight out. With the Vorta, it's all about getting straight to the point."

"She's right, you know, and maybe a little trip to the holosuite is in order?"

"Quark, a holosuite?" Vera asked disgustedly when the Ferengi happened to stop by their table with her favorite tea coming, and she paid him her strip in latinum. "Why would I need a holosuite? Not your Risian programs..."

"Oh, not at all. It could be a shot of Georgia, wherever you are from. Take him in to get to know your home a little better, bond some more that way - and maybe if he opens up about his homeworld, I might as well get that underway."

She supposed that wasn't a bad idea, but Keevan might not be happy with a holosuite program, or was she just assuming it? Vorta liked to have fun once in awhile when they had a chance, but not Keevan. A program could wait. Right now, they had one thing to settle.

~o~

He was busying himself with the collection of novel PADDs that had been here, given to him by Vera ever since he moved here, engrossed in a collection of intriguing fairytales, notably _Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs_ which seemed to be his favorite thus far. Somehow, it reminded him of himself if not entirely the same - until it came to the climax of the girl being threatened with death by her wicked stepmother until the third time was the charm...but it did not end there, as she was revived and taken away to marry the man she fell in love with. As punishment for her crimes, the seven little friends of the princess placed hot iron shoes for the wicked queen so she danced until she dropped dead.

However, he could not stop his mind from being in such turmoil. He still had not found it in himself to go to Vera; if he'd gone to her shop, then her mother would try to stop them both, and who knew what she would say or do to Vera as she was a very strict woman at times.

And then, on the fourth day, his quarters were buzzed. He put the PADD down and called, "Come in." He remained sitting in his chair when he looked up to see WHO it was. "Vera!"

"Keevan," she replied simply, stepping in and the doors closing behind her.

They both stared at each other, both of them unsure of how to begin, but Keevan had no idea more than she as it seemed she knew why she was here, but he couldn't think of his part. He knew she wanted to know why he ran off on her the way he did, but how could she understand how he felt? He wasn't supposed to feel this way; that was letting your guard down so you were hurt in the end. He never suffered heartache the way she described she did when her husband betrayed her, but by the explicit details, he knew he did _not_ want that for himself, and he couldn't let Vera get hurt again if he couldn't make her happy.

"Should we skip the 'how have you been' mess and just go right into it?" she asked, folding her arms across her chest.

He shrugged. "If it pleases you."

She scoffed. "You don't have to talk to me like I'm a small child. I might still be young, but I'm not to be patronized. Why did you panic and run away like that? And don't say I wouldn't understand. If it has to do with your inability to enjoy physical touch or feel at least some form of sympathy, comfort..." She stopped herself when she realized she was rambling and looked away from him; her cheeks were flushing, which he thought was charming.

He shook his head. He wanted to tell her that everything she said was making this harder for him than it already was, but at the same time, both of his lifetimes had been so empty now that he was learning all of these new techniques which made the life of a human as well as humanoid worth living, seeing the union of Dr. Bashir and Dax and the expression called love between them...Keevan remembered how light he felt when he beheld the sight - and realized how lonely his life _truly_ was. He would live for a long time unless something happened to him, and he intended to live as long as possible because there were still things he wanted to do.

And then Vera Coleman walked into his life, and he had never felt so at ease. Or was that all there was?

Besides the fact she suffered heartbreak and rejection, he despise and banishment just because he loved his people - save for the Founders - they really were not that much different. She was all he had in his new life, and he did not want to lose her. If only he could answer her and make her understand...

"Well, I'm waiting."

"Vera, I can't accept touch and anything you say. I can't...enjoy anything of the sort of intimacy that you humans crave," he said finally, throwing his hands in the air and turning his back to her. "It makes a Vorta..."

"What? Weak? Is that it?" she asked angrily. "You're saying that because you don't want either of us hurt? That's the dumbest thing I ever heard. Perhaps you don't understand that I'm the only other besides you afraid, too. I got my heart broken and don't want to go through it again."

"That's exactly the other reason!" Keevan burst, halfway turning his face back to her. "I can't put you through that again. Suppose I can't be the one to please you? What have I to offer you?"

His ears picked up her footsteps coming towards him. "I don't want some man to provide for me, God! I just want someone who won't abandon me like my first husband did, just treasure me like I'm all there is, and in return, I want him to feel like he made the right choice. I don't even want to ask for a lot, Keevan, but just that we both give each other a chance to make things work. We don't have to rush into intimacy so soon, or even the old-fashioned courtship form."

Her voice had dropped to a softer level, tired of this yelling and persistence, which Keevan was grateful for. He jumped when he felt her hand on his shoulder, turned him around slightly and looked down into her eyes. "We don't need to change anything right now, either. I want us to keep being friends and then see how things turn out. Don't you want that?" She now sounded something along the lines of desperate, afraid of losing him. Just like he didn't want to let her go. Keevan closed his eyes briefly and inhaled through his nose, trying to calm down his rapidly beating heart.

"Yes," he breathed finally. "Yes, I want to be friends very much."

~o~

"Has it already begun yet?"

He looked up from the console displaying the test results of the patient who had succumbed; she was one of the very first to ever succumb to the virus. There were two more still working on it depending on the strength of their immune systems, and the fourth would not live to see until it was too late. "A month has gone by, so I would say the development has completed its course. The malady should begin its operation very soon." Alas, their newest unfortunate victim would not stand a chance in a few more months or so, but the final trigger would pull if he ever found the need to mate with another - the results would be consequential for the both of them by then, as it was with the ones before him.

~o~

He and Vera had grown closer than ever over the next three months that passed for their friendship. They never seemed to be separated, from her own gatherings, same for him. They were always at the replimat during the afternoon, stopping at Quark's a few times a week, and he was back to visiting her in the tailor shop much to her mother's disapproval.

However, when Norah went to confront Colonel Kira, Keevan himself had followed her and overheard the conversation with his sensitive ears.

"I don't want that creature anywhere near my daughter. I demand that he be moved away from her, kept as far away from her as -"

"Mrs. Coleman," Kira interrupted calmly and firmly, "I can't do that unless he's committed an offense against Vera. And so far, I have gotten no complaints from anyone else regarding Keevan. He's been nothing but on good behavior, caused no trouble to my station." Her tone hardened along with her face. "So unless you give me a damn good reason, I will leave Keevan and your daughter alone as they are, seeing as she has a very good influence on him."

"Vera deserves better than some treacherous demon of the Dominion!" Norah Coleman burst out furiously, her face turning red as her raised octaves. "It's as simple as that. I left my husband all for her when she left hers; we both came here when we had nowhere else to turn, and this is what she does: befriends a monster and spends all her time with him than she does with me, her own mother! He's a BAD influence! I demand a restraining order in place so I can protect Vera!"

Keevan felt his rage bubble along with a growing fear that he would be forced to separate from Vera, the woman he had grown fond of and was willing to do anything for her. But her foolish mother thought she could protect herself by keeping her daughter from him, which was what the colonel seemed to think. "Vera or yourself?" she seethed, standing from behind her desk. "Mrs. Coleman, my patience is wearing thin. I won't restrain a resident just for being friends with another, especially when no serious crimes were committed - not even for another's personal hateful reasons," she said coldly, locking her eyes on the fuming Norah. "This matter will be dropped at once, now get out of my office or I will call security and have you removed. And if you so much as try anything on Keevan and Vera, I'll find an excuse to make you regret it. Am I understood?"

He had to get out of here before he was seen, but no sooner had he started walking away did he hear Norah Coleman call out to him.

"You stay away from my daughter or I will make you regret ever meeting us - or even coming to this station."

He whirled around and faced her head-on; everyone was looking at them now. Who knew where Vera was right now. "You heard the Colonel," he said coolly, "you can't do anything to me because I haven't done anything."

"Because you're a menace, but while no one else has complained about your presence any longer, I certainly have," she hissed. "Just the memory of you makes me sick. You think I'll ever forgive the Dominion for everything they did? Your little sob story of being kicked away from your home doesn't move me. They should have killed you when they had the chance."

He ought to have been wiser and turned to walk away, but he knew to stand ground and face like a man. This woman ignited a fire he hadn't had since the Dominion banished him. She was the only one who was his major enemy in this entire station. "You really should watch your choice of words, Norah Coleman," he said softly, dangerously, narrowing his eyes. "You're pushing one too many buttons. Do you know what it gets you in return?"

She laughed haughtily. "You think you scare me?" she sneered. "You're welcome to try something because all of Ops is watching you."

Keevan's lip curled. "You think I'll physically come onto you, woman? You don't scare me once. I'll let you know just this once that your daughter is a woman. You can't tell her who she can and can't be with, never mind that she works the same shop with you. She's welcome to run to me anytime she wants if her own mother doesn't appreciate her. I don't know you as well as she does, but for all I do know, a mother would never insult or try to control her child's life. You make me sick."

Norah drew back, her face stoned shock before it contorted into an ugly expression. "Why, how dare you insult me in front of all these people?!"

Colonel Kira called to them from overhead. "Keevan, Mrs. Coleman, perhaps you both should take this outside -"

"Forgive me, Colonel, but I have to say no," Keevan called back up calmly, locking his eyes with her. "I NEED to say all of this like the man I am."

As soon as the words left his mouth, an exhilarating wave of self-satisfaction and confidence overcame him. He had never called himself a man before, never once thought it possible he would gain something from it. The Founders would have called him an egotist, his peers would have said he was self-confident for his own good, but no. He took charge and talked down a demeaning woman between him and her daughter. "If you so much as try to interfere with us again," he said hotly to Norah Coleman, "I'll make you regret it. Understood?" Kira talked her down with the same words, so why couldn't he? The woman herself was rendered speechless; all she could do was brusquely nod and stalk away.

As soon as she was gone, the whole of Ops roared with applause and cheers. Keevan remained where he was, unsure of how to take the appraisal for taking down the dragon lady and just smiled as slightly as he managed.

"Oh, you were wonderful!" Vera said happily when he came to see her later on. She squealed and fell onto her sofa, laughing and rolling, nearly onto the floor before he helped her up into a sitting position. "I wish I was there to see it!"

He sat down beside her. "If only," he agreed. "But you should have seen her face, my dear. She lost all of her words. The colonel had her pinned before I did the additions."

She laughed and held onto him for dear life. He didn't want her to laugh too hard or she would lose her pants - that alone made him burst out with her, tumbling to the floor with her. Right then and there, he just wanted to roll on the floor with her and laugh until they were both tired.

 _Sha ta co ti oh ne rivna_

 _Sha ta co ti oh nugga tir na nog_

 _Sha ta co ti oh ne rivna_

 _Nug a tir na nog._

He almost jumped out of his skin when he heard the music in the background. He had no idea what it was, or who the artist was, but he guaranteed that it was nothing from the galaxy and had to be from Earth. "This is Celtic Woman," Vera said when she stood and pulled him to his feet. _"Tir Na Nog."_

 _Come, my love, our worlds may part,_

 _the gods will guide us across the dark._

 _Come with me and be mine, my love._

 _Stay and break my heart._

 _"_ Vorta don't dance!" he protested, however his body felt a little thrum as she took his hands into hers.

"Then I'll teach you!" she yelled over the music before she caught him off by singing along and bringing him around with her with each line. _"From the shores through the ancient mist, you bear the mark of my elven kiss."_ Keevan yelped as he nearly tripped but held onto her. _"Clear the way; I will take you home to eternal bliss."  
_

 _Sha ta co ti oh ne rivna_

 _Sha ta co ti oh nugga tir na nog_

 _Sha ta co ti oh ne rivna_

 _Nug a tir na nog._

 _Tir na nog, oh, come beyong the ancient fog._

 _Tir na nig, oh, come with me to tir na nog._

Somehow he managed to forget about the struggles as he let himself go, at Vera's pleas, and he began to enjoy the waves of excitement while he imagined being beyond the sea of stars outside the station, just being far away, carrying Vera with him if only for a day...

 _Far away from the land you new,_

 _the dawn of day reaches out to you._

 _Though it feels like a fairytale,_

 _all of this is true._

 _"Run with me, have a look around,"_ Vera sang as she let him go and swirled, wrapping her arms around herself and picking up her tiered lace skirts as she dashed back and forth. _"We build our life of a sacred ground. Come, my love; our worlds may part. We'll be safe and sound..."_

Something inside Keevan had given way as the message of the song settled into his heart, reminding him of so much of a certain day that he never thought of again until now. He did not remember feeling so abandoned until then, but it got him Vera.

But the emptiness returned when the full weight of abandonment returned with great force.

He fell down and cried as though he'd been burned. His people did not love him, his gods hated him - _everyone_ hated him. It was the effect of Vera's care and friendship the last few months that made it blow to the surface after a restful sleep.

"Keevan what's wrong?!"

He looked up when she knelt beside him; he was on his knees and hyperventilating so much his heart began to beat, like he was in a claustrophobic room. "I'm sorry," he gasped. "I remembered something I haven't felt since I was...exiled." She didn't answer verbally, just nodded her understanding, and when Keevan looked up at her, he found himself looking into her eyes, those irises of vivid blue...

 _Time won't follow the path we came._

 _The world you left - it forgot your name._

 _Stay with me and be mine, my love;_

 _spare my heart the pain._

Warmth flooded through his body when something very soft covered his lips. His eyes had closed as he welcomed it without a struggle, the last of the music playing in the system coming to an end automatically, but all he could think and feel was Vera's soft, full lips against his own for the first time.

"Mmm..."

Somehow, they both managed to fall onto the floor; he was subconsciously aware that his back was against the floor. She straddled his waist, her thighs trapping him and gently rubbing herself against him, the friction subtle and yet enticingly warm. There was nothing further than that, however, and she was leaning over him, kissing him between hard and soft, deepening it; she had more experience than he did, so he let her do all the work and laid back to enjoy it. Keevan murmured wordlessly when they broke apart. His lungs were burning from the intensity of the lip-lock. He had never felt anything like this before, but he wanted more now that he was unable to shove it down - and he sensed the same off of her.

His hands came up and briefly caressed her bared thighs, stopping and gripping her hips. Their tongues had not become intertwined that suddenly reality hit Keevan in his brain. He stopped the kiss and quickly pulled away to look at her. "I don't think we should be...doing this."

"Neither do I," she agreed. "But do you want to stop this? We agreed..."

"I know what we agreed," he said, turning his face away, feeling his cheeks flush. How could he have forgotten? They had been such good friends the last three months and now here they were: on the floor and in a steamy embrace, kissing and almost getting to something more. She seemed to know what he was thinking and slid off of him, sitting up as he did, still beside him, but neither could look at the other.

"This is crazy," he heard her mutter. "Friends aren't supposed to do what we just did."

Now Keevan found it in himself to look at her. He agreed; friends didn't make out on the floor or engage in...intimacy. But...THEY did. They were so close to it. His lips were still tingling with the sweet heat of hers. It was enough to change everything in that moment from happy and relaxed to strained and embarrassing. Nothing was the same.

"What happens now?" was all he could ask her. Sadly, she had no answer either. **  
**

 **I am a huge fan of Celtic Woman, and the first time I heard "Tir Na Nog", one of their newest hits, it captured my heart and soul that the feeling along with the lyrics were perfect for Vera and Keevan.**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

"You _kissed_ him!"

"I did," Vera answered tiredly as she sewed a traditional Bajoran wedding dress - not for Kira, but for one of the attending spirituals of the Shrine in a few months; she was only putting up the final touches before the first fitting in a month. Thank God her mother was sick today. But she would not go to see if she was alright; Norah could take care of herself.

As far as Vera was concerned, she no longer had a mother. Perhaps she was better off without her after all. Norah should have stayed married to Jonathan and remained on Earth had her daughter known it would come to this.

"That's great!" Ezri said cheerfully, sitting by while the redhead finished the dress before carefully placing it in its garment bag for preservation until its bride came. "About time; I think three months was long enough to build up the tension."

Vera sputtered, almost dropping the garment back before pulling herself together. She had to get to taking the new measurements of the lieutenant's uniform, had more mending to do, and now they were discussing the kiss she had on the floor with Keevan! She couldn't even believe she opened her mouth about it. Yet again, she and Keevan had not spoken for a week; why were things always awkward between them?!

They were ADULTS, not awkward adolescents. Why did it have to be like this?

"Ezri, this is stupid," she said finally. "I admit, I enjoyed the kiss..."

"Did he?" the Trill interrupted gently, still smiling.

Vera shrugged. "You could say that. His actions spoke more than his words did. He was rather...heated."

"Heated?" Dax doubled over and laughed. "It reminds me of the first time Julian and I kissed on the elevator in Ops two years ago. Worf and Chief O'Brien had to push the button and send us back down to finish the business."

"More than I need to know!" Vera said, howling and holding her hand up, nearly doubling over herself. Ezri looked at her with mock-shock.

"Hey, it's not like we actually _did_ anything in the elevator that day!"

They squealed with laughter for awhile before returning to the serious issues at hand. Vera got to work on picking up the tricorder and measuring tape to start at the shoulders. "What am I going to do, Ezri? We haven't spoken in a week now, and this is the second - maybe third - time in a row we make no contact. What are we, children who can't sort a matter out?"

Ezri shrugged. "No, you're not kids. The same happened with me and Julian. We avoided each other for days after Worf forced me to acknowledge that I loved him, when I never knew it myself. The longer it went on, the worse it got, you know? But being around Julian was all I could ever ask for," she said when both pairs of blue eyes - hers and Vera's - made contact. "Now we're married, and I love Julian very much."

Vera lowered her eyes regretfully.

"You love Keevan, don't you?"

She almost dropped the tricorder. L-l- _love?!_ She was at a loss for words, her hands shaking so hard she wasn't sure if she would stop it. "E-Ezri!" she stammered, but the lieutenant held up a hand.

"Don't say anymore. You know I'm right when I say it. Everything you said about the kiss, how he makes you feel - it's obvious you want to be more than just friends. What happened with your first husband was because you guys were young, and he was basically the classic bad boy. But Keevan has always been there for you; yeah, he ran out on you the first time, but he's new to these feelings as you. He was thrown from home, but you made his life here worth it. Your mother didn't approve, but you threw it in her face and he defended you. You two have been so close the last three months that it finally led up to a kiss on the floor." Ezri stifled a giggle before pulling it together. "That's love, from a counselor's point of view. Don't you think it's time you two stopped running from it?"

~o~

Keevan despised running away from the problem, despised running away period. But how could LOVE be so easy as missions of all forms? He was always excited for adventure, always eager for a challenge...but love proved even greater than all of it.

Perhaps it was love, given he was no longer scared to admit it. He had been happier than ever over the last three months, but then a week ago, they _kissed!_ That kiss was nothing he ever felt in his life, and it fueled him with the same impressive amount of heat that her body against his hand done when she cried against him. He never thought he would say this, but he was a fool to run away from her like this. Enough had to be enough, but there was one thing that needed settling:

He needed to talk to Dr. Bashir, man to man.

The good doctor was in the infirmary when Keevan cleared his throat from the doorway. Bashir looked up from his PADD, clearly showing surprise on his face. "Keevan, what an unexpected surprise."

"Considering you and I are not exactly friends," Keevan stated, obviously, canting his head forward briefly. Again, how could you forget putting one against your own Jem'Hadar unit to save your own life?

"Who said we weren't friends?" Bashir asked, frowning and leaning back in his chair. Was the man that foolish to think they would fall under civility terms?

Keevan scoffed and clasped his hands behind his back. "Face it, doctor, you haven't forgotten what I pulled off three years ago. Four months of residing on this very station belonging to my former enemies can never change the past." Now he regretted his decision ever coming here. "I'm sorry for bothering you, doctor, but it seems I have made it pointless after all." He turned to leave before Bashir stopped him, and he swirled gracefully back around.

"Keevan, you're not leaving until you tell me the real reason why you came here. It can't be just to remind each other of the past."

He sighed and bowed his head again. "It's Vera," he said, flat out.

"Ah, yes. You two have been avoiding each other - _again_."

"Because we kissed, something friends never do, to my knowledge. I have, apparently, no one to preside over the matter."

Julian scoffed and motioned for him to come inside and sit before him. "You're speaking of this as though it is a wrongdoing you want to reevaluate. There is never anything foul about a first kiss. Look at me and Ezri; we began as friends..."

"But that's different! We were on opposite sides; you and Dax together for years. I spent years in service to shape-shifters who made my people slaves, cast me out for rebelling and speaking out - for my _independence._ Vera welcomed me, but it scares me that I feel something for her that my old masters called a weakness. How can I love her if -?"

Bashir interrupted him calmly. "Love does not make you weak, Keevan. It makes you _stronger._ It's not only brought out by a fear of loneliness, but because you cherish that person more than anything else in your life. And they say loving your best friend is the best way to go. Now Ezri and I are married and happier than we have ever been," he finished with a smile. "It's not something easy to explain, but how can you enjoy life without sharing it with someone else?"

Keevan's heart began to rut against his ribs once again as the words of wisdom soaked into it. It was then and there that he knew Dr. Bashir was right; he had gone to the young doctor because he was a man who had been in this area and done that. Keevan closed his eyes and tried to think of how to go to Vera and fix this mess before it got worse.

~o~

They also said when you want to fill your home with serenity, be it flowers or artwork, or anything particular, you get a certain sense of peace. Vera decided to follow that example and purchased some flowers from one of the floral arrangement shops that had come from Earth. She placed them in the middle of the glass coffee table, then sat back and looked at them, sighing at the sight of the exquisite, peaceful pink flowers from lilies to orchids and roses, combined with rich green willow branches and exotic leaves. All of them were in a square black dish you would find in Asian countries.

She inhaled through her nose and leaned back, relaxing as she tried to let her mind drift off to another place and forget, just for the moment, the troubles between her and the man who lived across the hall from her...

Damn the buzzer. "Come in!" she called, eyes snapping open and looking up to see who came in - and it was no surprise WHO it was. Keevan strolled in, face impassive but his eyes filled with everything she needed to know - and what he held in his hands surprised her altogether. It was something no man got her for a long time. "What's with the flowers?"

Her mind cursed her for asking that stupid question as she knew _exactly_ what was with the flowers, but he answered her anyway as he walked further in until he stood a foot's length from the table and her, holding the bouquet out. "I've never done this before," he answered, a meek edge to his silky tone - a first for him, "but I was told giving a woman flowers is an expression of how much a man is sorry and still cares for her."

"How...thoughtful." The bouquet was very elegant, filled with white roses, lilies, and Queen Anne's lace, accented with minimal greenery. She wondered how he'd gotten this, and another week gone by, but it didn't matter. He was here now.

"What's with the...new addition?" he asked, tilting his chin in the direction of the arrangement of zen floral on her table.

Vera stood and took the bouquet from him. "To give this place more tranquility," she said, inhaling the sweet variety of aromas. "Thank you?" It was a question instead of a straight answer. She used to be moved by flowers and sweets from her first husband whenever they had their arguments, but right now with Keevan - it was sincere because it was his first time giving a girl florals after two weeks of more awkward distance. "But you realize we still have to talk about this?"

He nodded. "We already worked out that we can't be friends if we had just...kissed," he said quietly. "Vera, the reasons I agreed to just be friends is because of my lifetimes of being devoid of love, but it was not only because the Founders instilled it into me. It was because I was afraid of losing you and what we have. I really want you, Vera, if you are willing to have me in return - but as more than friends."

She felt her heart almost leap, and her throat tighten as she tried to hold back the tears. She looked into his eyes and was unable to hold herself back any longer. She began to sob as she leaned against him, holding onto him but careful not to crush the flowers between them. In fact, she held onto them in her free left hand as she wrapped her other around and come up to run through his silky black hair; this was the second time they kissed, and no more awkward moments from then on. Their fate was sealed.

Three more weeks to pass, they were happy as a couple, until Keevan surprised her one day by taking her outside her mother's tailor shop and cupping both of her hands in his, publicly asking her to marry him which she could not say no to.

~o~

He and Vera had been happily engaged to be married the last three months - they had known each other for almost eight months and it had happened so fast. They were getting married in one more month; it seemed like only yesterday they had just met, endured awkward moments and then worked out the tension...and now they were getting married.

He was supposed to move in with Vera months ago, after proposing to her but did not yet have a ring; all the savings he'd brought with him from the Gamma Quadrant he'd saved while he was here but never used. Quark offered him a position in being his accountant as Keevan was good with numbers, so that was what he had been following the engagement. It soothed him enough even if the Ferengi was obnoxious and insane about profit. He was keeping it up unlike his homeworld now run by his younger "idiot" brother, the current Nagus. The old Ferenginar as he knew it was dwindling and becoming more like Earth and its human's economic way of life was.

Quark's nephew, Nog, was lieutenant now, so Keevan had seen him around ever since he returned from temporary off-station assignment from Earth. He met the young Ferengi one day that he remembered as well as he remembered the rest of Captain Sisko's team.

"Keevan, working for my uncle," he stated, looking him over with a scrunching nose. "I'm not surprised the Dominion doesn't like you anymore."

"I anticipated that from you; nothing like a scandal ever truly goes away," Keevan stated as he sat beside the Ferengi on the bar. "But life's readjusted to being good for me. I'm getting married."

Nog looked rather surprised, jaw dropped slightly before it broke into a slight smile. "Well, congratulations, I suppose. The tailor's daughter, right?"

"Her name is Vera. How did you know that?"

"Uncle Quark."

Keevan snorted. "Of course. But her mother has protested this marriage, as usual. She despises me for obvious reasons, even though I never did anything to her. Would I be surprised if you still loathe me for the situation three years ago, when I had you and Mr. Garak held for bargaining chips?"

The Ferengi turned his body around to face him halfway. "I did, and sometimes I still do. Your last one's death hasn't changed my opinion," he said frostily, muddy eyes locked with Keevan's.

Well, it wasn't like time healed ALL "wounds", Keevan thought sarcastically as he coolly responded, "Of course not, but that was my predecessor, not me. I don't serve the Dominion anymore. I serve my penance here. Exile has proven peaceful thus far; I don't worry anymore about dirty combat and boring Jem'Hadar soldiers. Or even snide Changelings like the Female Founder herself notably."

"Well, it happened. Just so you know, while I am here, I won't be taking my eyes off you anytime I see you," Nog warned him, making him laugh.

"Lieutenant, you can watch me all you want, but rest assured, I'm not that man anymore. You'd be wasting your time. Now if you will excuse me, I best be getting back to work," Keevan said casually as he stood and walked through the doorway behind the bar. "But," he added, turning back around, "if you would love to be invited to my wedding, you're more than welcome."

His uncle's excellent ears caught on every word from outside. "Oh, that reminds me, I've had a few weddings in my bar," Quark said as he was counting down the latest numbers of latinum on his PADD. Keevan sat down across from him and picked up his own. "Would you and Vera be kind to change your minds...?"

Keevan glared at him. "Thank you, but we are not getting married in a bar, much less this one. She wants to have it back home, in a far more beautiful place familiar to comfort. Not Bajor, not Ferenginar, or anywhere else in this area. She misses home." He looked down at the PADD, seeing that there was a considerable amount to be owed to a couple of Tholians. He suppressed a snort at Quark's need for bad business; he and Colonel Kira still had their share of butting heads over his petty thievery which had once been between him and Odo, according to the Ferengi.

"How very sentimental," Quark said with some traces of sarcasm, the beeping of the PADD reaching Keevan's senses. "You know, I never thought I would hear you being the big man who puts his woman above everything else, because in the old Ferenginar, the woman was not allowed to dress, earn profit or leave the house."

"And treating my bride-to-be as property is nothing on my watch. Quark, you're welcome to finish the planning touches with us, but I won't have it here on Deep Space 9. Have the flower arrangements been finalized?"

"Everything is in order," Quark answered with a nod and that crafty business smile of his. "You and the fiancée won't be disappointed. That's never good for business, partner."

He'd better not, because if this didn't go well for Vera's day - it was his, too, but he could not appreciate much of the idyllic scenery the bride herself dreamed of - then it would be the worst day of her life. He might as well be married once, and this would be her second. Everything had to be _perfect_.

~o~

It was difficult to proceed with a wedding, knowing your own mother was not crazy about the man you were head over heels for. But Norah had grown to accept there was nothing she could do about it, and that still did not make it easier. Ezri and Julian had helped her with the planning, and so did Quark along with Kira Nerys, but her mother she had along out of the fear of regret for the rest of their lives. Norah had been there for her when she got married the first time, but this time felt more nauseous than ever because this was a man who swore he would never betray her or take her for granted, had nothing really to give her but undying devotion.

Undying devotion...those were words her first husband never said. Sure, he said unconditional love, but now they paled in comparison to Keevan's "love song".

"It's finished, but since your weight never changes really, you have nothing to worry about," Norah told her as she helped her daughter fit into her dress a week before the wedding. Since this was her second marriage, Vera wanted a new look that fit her personality altogether. She wanted a slimmer fit as she had matured a little, and a color that was not pure and virginal like her first was. This was romance at its finest with not only the blush color that you continued to find these days for a non-chaste human bride, but also in the fitted bodice embellished with crystals and flaring into a dramatic, breathtaking layered skirt resembling petals. What bride could ask for anything better than this?

"You sure you won't live to regret this?"

Vera frowned at her. "Mother, don't you start again. It's bad enough I carry enough emotional weight on me as it is. I had it from Father with the divorce and I don't need THIS from you."

"I'm only looking out for you; how can you not see this?"

"You hate him just for being Vorta! Face it, Mother, just because you've stopped trying to part us does not mean you changed your mind. I really wish I could say I love you for trying to help me, but I can't!" she burst, the tears pricking her eyes. "Keevan loves me for who I am and not for who he wants me to be, not like it was with Danny. He spoiled me with flowers and presents, but in the end he left me for someone else right after I chose to leave him. Father hated me for breaking the family up when it was _Danny_. I really thought I had my mother with me all this time, but now I see not anymore. I want so much," she ground out, "to say you're no longer invited, but I'll hate myself for the rest of our lives if my own mother does not go to her daughter's wedding."

Norah said nothing, her expression that of unbridled shock at her own daughter talking to her like this. The daughter herself could have sworn that she might be taking into reconsideration, but no more words were spoken between them on that day. Now she fitted Ezri's new dress for the wedding - it was short and coral-colored with straps and a subtle illusion neckline with some sparkle - in silence and found herself dreamily looking at the beautiful diamond ring from Keevan only a month ago after saving more than enough just for her. This was the second time he made her happy not spoiling her so much. Falling in love was supposed to feel like a fairytale, and this ring was a symbol of that happily ever after a young girl could only dream of - at twenty herself, she was still young but she wasn't a girl anymore. The ring had an exquisite, intricate band work captured with a brilliant round diamond with more fire than her old one ever did - her old one had been enchanting, yes, had been his mother's before she died. What a broken promise that was. Still, the ornate gold band with the small rose-cut diamonds in a floral pattern had taken her breath away before it fell apart with her marriage.

When the day finally came, back home in Georgia, in this beautiful park near the town she grew up, Chattahoochee, she was in her beautiful dress, her red hair set with a gold metal flower headband with crystals on the petals, her favorite jewelry in place and holding freshly picked flowers in her hands from the fields as she stood before Keevan under a beautiful cherry blossom tree, its sweet pink blooms harmonizing with the lush greenery placed beneath and around it for more along with roses in colors of yellow, white and peach. Keevan was in a soft silvery shirt with a black jacket, pants and boots, handsome and ethereal, smiling down at her most sweetly and ready to spend his life with her - his eyes glittered and promised her he was ever true to his word that he would never hurt her.

"You may now kiss the bride."

She almost moaned against Keevan's mouth when they finally kissed in front of everyone watching them; while doing so, she tossed the bouquet behind her and decided seeing who caught it could wait until she and her new husband were done making out. When they finally broke free, they looked behind them and saw their guests of twenty people, choosing to keep the affair small and intimate - and it was Nog who caught the bouquet, making them all laugh. Julian and Ezri were cheering for them, Colonel Kira giving her blessings...and even Norah Coleman was smiling at her daughter's happiness.

They were on route back to Deep Space 9 by the time the wedding ended as well as the reception party in the field, set under a great tent hung with grand crystal chandeliers in circles made up to today's standards. Once they got back, Vera knew this was their first day and night as husband and wife. It wasn't the traditional consummation night, not for herself at least but for him. Keevan had never been with anyone, so she would be his first. He might be afraid of messing up, but she was eager to guide him through this. Her body thrummed with desire that hadn't been present since she was younger than she was now. As a grown woman, you tended to think about sexual contact ninety-eight percent of the time instead of a hundred and ten percent when you're a teenager.

She had changed out of her wedding dress and into a softer, flowing light pink dress of silk when they began to depart back into space. "This is it," she said once they were home. Tomorrow he was moving in with her, the last final big step. "You want to do it?" She reached up and helped him out of his jacket, then unbuttoned the front of his shirt to expose his lightly muscled chest. He was beautiful, smooth like a god - sheer perfection. He sighed at her touch while she sighed at the silk of his flesh. He smiled down at her and kissed the bridge of her nose.

"Are you referring to intimacy?"

"Making love," she corrected, kissing him back. "I want to make love and not feel regret about it. I want to be forgotten about the bad times I had."

His eyes widened. "Your...last husband could not please you?" he asked incredulously, his expression making her laugh a little.

"He tried to, but somehow as our marriage went on, it wasn't as good as the first night, for some reason."

Keevan's handsome face immediately switched to that of devious and desire. "Well, in that case, I ought to get to it. You tell me what you want me to do, and I'll do it right."

He was determined to make her happy and not himself. She let him reach behind and untie her dress from there, letting it fall from her body to the floor. She looked down at the floor but away from her skin; her body was firm and curvaceous, but somehow she felt like she was a first-time bride again. Chuckling, Keevan brought his hand to her chin and made her look at him. "Don't be shy. You're beautiful, and I'll take great care of you." With that, he shed the rest of his clothes so he was as naked as she was. Vera gasped at the rest of his slim but lean body without a mark. He made her tingle even more; his slowly growing hardness was proof of his own sensation. Silently, he bade her over to the bed so he lay down on his side, then onto his back so she could crawl on top of him, her legs straddling him like their first heated kiss, his bare erection against her moist, itching folds. His length rubbed a little against the reddish-brown curls enough to drive them both crazy, and she slowly eased herself over him while busying them both with another kiss. He moaned so beautifully against her mouth, even higher when they broke apart; it was the mere pleasure of himself inside her for the first time, and his endowment filling her perfect - this was _nothing_ compared to her first time. Vera gently grinded her hips back and forth over him, drawing another gasp from him even as she rubbed her bare breasts against his chest, their pubic regions and naked bodies becoming one in the dark as she called for lights off just so she felt Keevan and nothing else.

 **I'm intending to keep this story beneath ten chapters long - short and sweet, straight to the point, and deep at the same time. I'm really happy so far and have no regrets, as I have said numerous times with my previous fics. :D**

 **Similarly, Annora O'Neal, an OC of mine and the leading lady of "Forged in the Desert Heat", the second in the Vorta Brides Trilogy, had a difficult first marriage herself which actually ended with her being widowed, and then Keevan changed it all by having a fabulous love life with her and devoting himself to her as she did to him.**


	5. Chapter 5

**For Vera and Keevan's honeymoon, I thought Casperia Prime was the perfect site instead of Risa, for once, the idea having come from watching season 6's "Change of Heart" when Worf and Jadzia Dax discussed their honeymoon. The planet is ringed like Saturn and said to be on par with Risa as a resort. :)**

 **I'm sorry it took awhile. I'd had difficulty continuing as we are close to the bad stuff, and I'd begun writing a new story involving Jadzia and Julian Bashir which will go up soon. :)**

Chapter Five

"How does Risa sound?" Keevan asked as he looked over the computer the next day. "Colonel Kira said she would be giving us this vacation as a gift to choose wherever we want." He could not remember the last time he had a free trip away from home and work, and it had been a while herself, according to his new wife, that Vera had taken one.

Risa was an interesting choice because of the never-ending fun and pleasure, but the catch was that it was loose on "relations", which did not sound appropriate, and Vera agreed. "I don't think so," she said as she packed her suitcase. "That place might be fun, but it's too open about sexuality. I'll be able to control myself, but you can always be tempted too easily."

He nodded and continued the search, finding basic rock-climbing expeditions like Vulcan's Forge, but that was too brutal even for them. Then there was - "What about...Casperia Prime?" he asked. "Said to be a resort like Risa."

She looked up and smiled. "That's all we need. Pampering, room service, lazing around and making mind-blowing love at night after we spend the days on the beach, swimming and feasting on fish, then return home in bliss only to be thrust back into reality."

Keevan could not even stifle a laugh as he thought of the possibilities. Traipsing on the beach, swimming in the ocean, eating fish, massaging...making mind-blowing love at night. Not that bad of a list.

~o~

"Here's a cheers to you and Julian!" Vera said happily, blinking her root beer with Ezri's tea. "Congratulations."

She and Bashir had been married for six months, and now they had the most wonderful news in the world to share: they were going to have a baby. "I didn't think we would so soon," the Trill said with a laugh after a huge downing of her drink, making the human woman laugh, too.

"Six months is soon? Hardly. If I found out we were having a baby so soon, I might die of a heart attack."

Ezri's eyes widened a little. "What about Keevan?"

"He doesn't know anything about children yet, so we're not doing it yet. I'm not sure I want to give up my independence for another life just yet, for the next eighteen years or more to come," Vera confessed. She'd always been an independent woman no matter what, so she wasn't sure if she wanted to give that up yet. Add in that Keevan might not want to be burdened with fatherhood like her first husband didn't want to be. Men were more troubled, it seemed, but they weren't the ones having the child the way the woman did.

"Have you even talked to him about it?" Dax questioned.

"Not yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't want to, like my first husband -"

"Oh, forget him! Keevan is not your first. He's nowhere near your first, and count on he might be your last if you two work on it. That's all it takes in a marriage. I was afraid that things would be hard after I married Julian, but no relationship is ever free from trouble no matter how much you don't want it. It's not so bad. Marriage is about give and take."

She downed the last of her tea. "So, when are you guys leaving for Casperia Prime?"

"Tomorrow morning," Vera answered, excited and nervous at the same time. She had never had the honeymoon a young bride dreamed about, and she had every right to be joyful. Rarely do you get any opportunity like this.

"Jadzia wanted to go there for her honeymoon, if only there hadn't been Lasaran and getting hurt, costing Worf a command of his own," Ezri said sadly before changing to a bright smile. "But now you get to."

So she did. She and Keevan left the next morning for the Horvian Cluster where the Casperia System resided. From space, it was a stunning, glittering orb of blue ringed with a lighter silvery tone, and upon arrival, it was dominated by oceans and a total of four vast islands of green and hills, streaming and with smaller waterfalls than Risa. Unlike Risa, Casperia was stern about infidelity and taboo, but otherwise you were free to enjoy yourself. Vera was blown away at the sight of the beautiful planet beneath them as Keevan, skilled with flying craft, brought them down to the Carthagean Island and sea. The structures of the buildings were angular and sleek, with gossamer curtains and free space, the rooms and service closed for privacy, but the fun of being out on the balconys and on the beach were revealed to the naked eye. From the advertisement, Vera was looking forward to a jet-streamed bath and shower, a soft bed of exotic linen and silk, sitting on the balcony morning and night, the entire day under the sun and in the pristine waters with her husband now.

"Oh, this room is amazing!" Vera gasped as she looked at warm golden walls and lighting, dropping her bag and landing onto the bed with exhilaration. Southern beliefs said overindulgence was a sin, but not this time! A week here was all she and Keevan needed - and he needed to know what it was like to enjoy some fun in the sun. "Go on and put your swimsuit on so we can hit the beach!"

She changed into hers, a single black piece with a criss-cross front, and over it she tossed a loose white cover-up comfortable enough for an island time. "Well, what do you think?" she asked Keevan as soon as she was ready. He looked her up and down with a slight smile and cock of the head.

"Endearing," was all he said, making her laugh, but he remained ever serious. "How about me?"

The choice of shorts was very small but complimenting his lean, toned form, light blue lined with silver. She tried not to giggle at the sight of his manhood outlined in the front. He noticed this, and his frown deepened. "That is not polite to laugh."

"No, I'm sorry." She walked over and took his hand to drag him out of their room. "Come on; we have a long week of fun ahead of us."

~o~

"It seems throwing my life away in the Gamma Quadrant had been worth it."

He'd said those words to Vera as soon as they boarded the runabout back home to Deep Space 9. He was disappointed as much as she was to leave Casperia, but they had to return eventually. He had the time of his life, his skin enjoying the sun and water, the food exquisite in smell even though he could not taste it, the days wondrous and warm while the nights were humid and cool - and being beside Vera morning and at night, her body mating with his...it was sheer exquisite. Exile was worth it all now that he was beginning to forget all about his past painful life.

But, halfway through the trip back, he felt himself become a little lightheaded and thought he was going to pass out, before Vera's hand helped him sit up straight. "Baby, are you okay?"

He grunted as his head began to pound a little. "I'm - fine," he said, strained. Why did he have to get a headache at a time like this? Perhaps they had too much fun and paid a small price for it. He was tempted to laugh but was refrained when the aching became powerful enough to become a migraine. "Oh, can you get some water from the replicator?"

He didn't look at her, instead blankly kept his eyes on the navigation and heard her request the beverage before bringing it over to him. "Here go you. Maybe I should take over for you," she offered, kissing his cheek which he returned without making full lip contact. Somehow his head pain prevented him from finishing it.

"Maybe ask Dr. Bashir to look at it."

Keevan shook his head. "It's probably short-lived. I'll be fine, love."

Sadly, the headache got worse over the next few days. Not to mention, Vera herself began to feel it in herself that they both decided to go to Julian for some herbs; they did work for only a few hours until the pains returned with a vengeance.

Vera found it difficult to concentrate on her knitting and sewing, and as a result, her mother grew even more short with her that she insisted she return to Dr. Bashir to find out what was really wrong with her, because there was no way this could be a mere migraine to last this long. Keevan had to agree with Norah on this one. He and his mother-in-law had begun to get a long just a little better, but she was yet of accepting him as part of the family.

It had been a week since they both returned from their honeymoon, and on the seventh day, the migraines stopped, only for a new symptom to begin: nausea hit them both with blunt force. Vera would be the first to relieve her stomach not long before Keevan had his turn, and then Vera eventually came to a stark realization.

"I think I might be pregnant," she said two days later, more nervous than she had been when they first met.

Keevan thought he would turn to stone in a matter of seconds. His wife was pregnant - was she absolutely sure? They hadn't been married that long, and yet they made love like minks at night... "Are you...sure?" he asked carefully, but he should have known better than that for she erupted.

"I don't know! I mean, I haven't missed my period yet, but it might be possible. Or maybe I'm imagining it. I don't even want a baby yet, but I have to be certain with Julian. God, Keevan..." She threw her hands up in exasperation and paced back and forth before him. "...what is wrong with us both lately?!"

For a moment, Keevan feared their marriage was on the rocks so soon - no, he would not think like that. He was not jumping to any conclusions; Julian had warned him marriage was filled with ups and downs, and to take it one day at a time. "It will be all right," he soothed, making her stop her pacing and pulling her close to him. "We'll get through this, I promise." He kissed the top of her silky head and rested his cheek on it.

It was later that night they both felt a little better, but who knew when it would be back. As soon as they both settled down for the night, Keevan felt himself burn below his stomach, tingle with an aching need. He noticed how tired his wife was and partly respected if she didn't want to, but he leaned over and kissed her lips. "Vera, do you want to...?" He looked down at his lap covered with the blanket as his way of finishing the sentence.

"Yeah, I want to." She settled back down for him to crawl on top of her and push her nightgown up so he could fish underneath and feel about her, finding her most sensitive, damper place and teasing her, making her giggle and pinch to make her moan. Her hands pushed down the waist of his sleeping pants to free his own private parts and pull him towards her. Getting the message, Keevan drawled on top of her and entered her swiftly.

They had not made love much ever since returning from their honeymoon on Casperia, because the migraines had stunted them both. By the end, they were both pouring sweat and exhausted, drained of energy that he fell on top of her and fell asleep from there.

By morning, things got worse.

Both he and his bride were hit with more bouts of nausea, but that was not the least of their problems. He felt himself ache below his waist, like someone had shoved something up his groin and twisted the muscles inside. Vera noticed this herself, having experienced it herself and helping him sit on the foot of the bed. "Oh, God, Keevan - we're not going to get any better unless we go to Julian. We should have when we had the chance," she croaked, leaning against him and not wanting to let go. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close.

He wasn't sure about her, but he felt like he was slowly shutting down like a machine running out of its juices. Unless that machine could be recharged with more refills and replacements, it would be gone forever.

"You two have been like this ever since coming back from Casperia," Bashir stated as he took their readings with his tricorder. Both husband and wife were sweating heavily now and smelling intensely of it that the nurse did her best in making sure they wore lighter clothing - both were in a long, loose tunic allowing their bodies to breathe - and drinking lots of water. No medicinal prescriptions were made as Bashir had yet to determine what they had both contracted. "Nausea, high fevers, immense pain to the groin..."

He stopped there, eyes widening when he seemed to have found something. "Oh...my...God..."

Vera looked at him with wide-eyed horror. "Julian?" she whispered nervously.

He shook his head. "Vera, Keevan, I don't know how to tell you both this, but..." He stopped there and closed his eyes, holding the PADD and tricorder close to him as though they were precious and the only source of help to give him the words to say. But when he finally spoke, they sent everyone into a shock.

"You both have been infected with a disease."

 **I'm not sure where the name Carthagean came from, but it sounded suitable, like the Aegean Sea of Greece. :) Greece itself is a paradise that it's where the architecture came from.**

 **Now you have it: Keevan and Vera are infected with a virus, which will be further explained in the upcoming chapter. Stay tuned!**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

It was as if the room was spinning before her eyes, the people inside with it, and her own brain was on the fritz as well. _Keevan...me...infected..._

They were infected with a virus!

She tried not to panic, but how could Vera keep calm? She was too young to die, and so was Keevan. How did this happen? She had never been sick ever since she was still a teenager, and Vorta don't get ill, do they? Keevan certainly was with her ever since they got home. She looked at him and saw him close his eyes as if in despair.

"Julian, how could this happen?" she asked, finding it hard to keep the fear from her voice. He shook his head.

"I don't know exactly, but according to my readings, like any other disease, it was caused by a retrovirus that actually incorporated itself into the bloodstream. It couldn't have begun with the brain, because it's not Altarian encephalitis which Commander William Riker once had."

"It's not natural," Keevan repeated at last, eyes still closed, remaining that way until he reopened them and looked at the doctor, his face an expressionless mask. "It's man-made, isn't it?"

The room immediately went silent. Both Julian and Ezri, as well as Nurse Jabara - and Vera herself - now believed he seemed to know more about this man-made virus that didn't seem to have a name of its own. "Keevan, what do you know?" Ezri asked, seeming to have a theory that it had been HE who carried it. Vera's brain clicked then and there.

Keevan had carried this virus with him when he was exiled from the Gamma Quadrant, and as a result...passed it onto HER. Her blood chilled. She supposed she would be angry, but did he _know_ he had it all this time? He would have told her if he did. Keevan had never once lied to her before; he promised on their wedding night they would never keep secrets from each other.

"I honestly do not know how this happened, but it's historic in the Dominion's history, commonly amongst the Vorta. It was called the Crimson Shadow Virus, a deadly disease that remains dormant within the body until..." He paused there and swallowed, shaking his head. "...sexual contact brings its devastating effects to the surface. The symptoms are always a high fever, nausea and a tremendous pain in the groin area." His eyes widened then and there, and he jerked his face ahead, avoiding looking at them altogether.

"By the Founders, why did I not notice sooner?!"

Vera curled into her seat, leaning against Ezri and wanting to cry as she could not think anymore and just watch the scene before her. Julian leaned over and put a hand on the Vorta's shoulder, but Keevan shrugged him off. "Keevan, you didn't know you had it when you came here, did you? Most viruses are unnoticeable in the first stages. Diabolical...sneaky," he said with his brows knitted together in deep thought. "You said this virus was...ancient?"

Keevan nodded. "For two hundred years, the Crimson Shadow Virus plagued my people and killed fifty Vorta in a single year, until the Founders and Vorta scientists as well as a handful of our Dominion allies found a miraculous way to eradicate the ailment, contain it and destroy it for good. It was never seen, heard of or spoken of again...I suppose until now."

"Could someone in the Dominion be...recreating it, and then tested you as their first guinea pig?" Ezri asked angrily. "You're not a favorite of theirs that you had to be the obvious choice, and so they sent you here to die alone and not give a damn. And Vera, too."

She was going to die with Keevan then. She moaned. Dying so soon at age twenty, with her second husband and last love - just their luck.

"Vera won't be as unfortunate as I."

She jolted backwards so her back arched a little against the chair, Dax's hand holding hers tightly. D-did he mean she would make it through the illness and he _wouldn't_? _No no no no NOOOO!_ her mind screamed. She couldn't stand to lose him like this - she wouldn't...!

"You mean, she'll survive?" Julian asked, mildly surprised. "But she won't be cured without the proper medicines and procedures -"

"Not if you can get her to a doctor with this knowledge in time," Keevan interrupted, coughing briefly before continuing. "The system slowly shuts down and leads to a painless death that you never see coming. However, the inflicted being has only three weeks to live. Maybe less. We just ran the course of the second week. My wife is not Vorta, but my kind never make it."

Something inside Vera broke that she wanted to run over to him and hold him close. "No, Keevan I don't want you to die!" she cried. "I don't want to lose you, lose another I love so much!"

Julian sighed. "Ezri, Nurse, please take her for rest."

~o~

In all his years of medicine, Julian Bashir could not imagine two people with this love enduring such a tragedy - nor had he ever seen it in person before. Vera was broken and weeping for her husband than for herself, but it begged the question of a cure if any Vorta doctors or anyone from the Dominion could even agree to this, once they learned she was the wife of the one they banished. They could very much let her die like they did to Keevan.

He was left alone with the Vorta on the bio-bed. He barely acknowledged his wife taken out, trying to shut everything out and probably spare her from his pain. He wanted to die - or was he just trying to hide it? It was selfish to want to leave your spouse alone when you barely started your lives together.

Bashir had also never seen a virus like this, as he said before. If it killed many Vorta without leaving any alive, then there must be no cure for Vera, but she wasn't Vorta. He could really use Keevan's help, starting with anyone he was in close contact with if not sexually before he was exiled. "Keevan, this is your wife's life and yours depending on everything. It's very important that you remember being so close to anyone, or an event in particular that might have caused the virus to be in your system if not sexually. For example, maybe a blood transfusion or anything you ingested..."

Keevan's monotonous voice interrupted him. "It takes over a month for the malady to develop before it is complete and patiently awaiting for me to make carnal contact with the woman I love..." His eyes flew open at once, and Julian saw the realization glowing vivid in his eyes - as well as the horror in them.

"Gods have mercy. It was Yutaron and Sadara."

~o~

 _"Keevan, you're awake," the soft voice of Sadara, the Vorta physician who was kind to all of her patients. He winced, wanting to sit up, but she helped him lay back down. "Please, ease. You're still weak and you lost a lot of blood. But I performed the transfusion. You'll be out of here in a few days."_

 _"Ironic, isn't it, Doctor?" he asked sarcastically. "I deserve the Jem'Hadar torture for the Founders' pleasure. I know what you must be thinking: what was_ I _thinking, voicing that the Vorta are a single race that should be treated as equal like the Federation treats their own kind? The Founders want me an example of renegade Vorta, not that I am not already."_

 _She scoffed. "I admit, it was foolish. But Keevan, your tongue is stronger than most of our people. But you're just one man, and you know how one man can't make much of a difference in the Dominion lest he faces the wrath of the gods..."_

 _He cut her off sharply. "Weyoun is one man, and he is our leader - at the Founders' side, of course. But he is a puppet whose strings are pulled, like the rest of us," he sneered. Sadara looked at him, shocked._

 _"Keevan, you shouldn't say such things! That is why I have heard Kilana and Gelnon talking about you. They do not like it any more than you and I do, Eris, too, but the Founders don't want to kill your life - they want you to leave the Dominion forever."_

 _He inhaled and let it out sharply; what more could he think or feel? He wasn't going to be executed...he was being_ banished. _His people and "makers" were getting rid of him in a sure way worse than death. They were laughing at him, making him an example. He was a worthless excuse of a Field Supervisor; how had he proved himself so far? Trading his unit's lives for his own, allowed himself to be taken prisoner and not killing himself for the Changelings, then protesting his people's existence in his current life..._

 _He had to say he agreed. But he was an individual. He wasn't defective, and he knew it. He would not give his own life up for another hundred years if he had to. Perhaps getting beaten by Jem'Hadar and left to bleed unconscious until someone else found him might be worth the trouble. No one liked him or praised him, no one treated him with respect - not mutual respect, but something more than was forbidden in the Founders' eyes - and certainly did not want him to be a "bad influence" on the rest. Whatever fate lay ahead for him, he would gladly accept it._

 _"Then I won't have to call it the will of the Founders," he said coldly to a shocked Sadara. "I call it the will of no one and nothing in particular. If that's what it is, then so be it. I'll take it better than I take serving shape-shifters playing gods."_

~o~

"Sadara and Yutaron," Dr. Bashir repeated. "The...doctors, if I'm not mistaken?"

Keevan nodded. How could he not have suspected before? But it wasn't like the Dominion ever did anything without warning, and they always had good reasons that were obvious enough or were not known at all. "A couple days before I was sent away, and it was for reasons of my outspoken voice heard, I was taken and assaulted by a unit of Jem'Hadar - the Founders deemed it amusing to see me beaten to a pulp. I remember nothing but pain and losing blood, and I woke in the infirmary, having a transfusion performed and my injuries repaired - and the news I was being expelled from the Gamma Quadrant. That is where my journey began," he said sarcastically, yet again. He thought he was making a joke of his own, but he took everything seriously. "Sadara was the doctor, and Yutaron was a scientist. I have no knowledge, but I believe he must have recreated the virus. He's renowned and respected, bringing back old methods and updating for today's technological and medicinal specializations."

"So, Dr. Sadara must have gotten a sample of the retrovirus from Yutaron and placed it into your new blood, transferred it into your system," Julian mused, disgusted, his lip curling. "It seems I now have a place to start." He moved to stand beside Keevan's bed and leaned down over him. "Keevan, you still have your personal communication system?"

He felt his eyes widen in horror. Unspoken, but Bashir was asking him to put him in contact with Sadara. The line would be traced for sure, but not unless the channel could be secured and coded. "Of course I do."

Julian's face split into a grin. "We're going to call your old friend, the good doctor."

~o~

"You going to tell your mother?" Ezri asked as she helped Vera back to her and Keevan's quarters after Bashir gave her pain suppressants and a drug to counteract any more nausea. He was keeping Keevan beside him a little while longer, needing his help in contacting an "old friend" from the Gamma Quadrant. She feared exciting the attention of the Founders if they discovered this...

"No," she said in response to Dax's question. "My mother should not know of my illness. She's been burdened enough. But if she needs to find out soon, then it won't be from me. She's bothered me long enough."

"Vera, that sounds harsh even coming from you." The Trill gasped. "She's your mother, no matter how much you might still hate her."

"Coming from someone who hates her own mother," Vera returned, pulling her hand gently from Ezri's hand and palming her quarters open. She was about to take a step inside before her brain snapped at remembering something. "Oh, God, how could I forget?"

"What?"

"I forgot to ask Julian about having a baby, or if this disease is making it impossible now."

Ezri smiled softly. "You can always go back later and ask. It won't be too late."

~o~

He could not believe he had almost forgotten about Sadara and Yutaron. Life had been so good he forgot about the bad times of his old life, and everyone in it. He had shunned all memories to the back of his mental recesses so well...until he found out his wife was sick with what he had, only he was the one going to die.

He had not wanted Vera to suffer with him on this, but it was too late. He was afraid of losing her more than himself now - or rather, afraid to die and leaving her alone to suffer his death. He was the last in his line, presumably, and the Founders did not trust him anymore they had to order his DNA template destroyed. He would be done for soon; his body was deteriorating each second that passed, in a few more days.

"Keevan," Bashir said after a moment as he allowed the Vorta to lock onto the channel, secure it and code it, "what if there IS a cure, but the Founders did not want one, just to make an example of your people for their own amusement? That's all the Changelings are, with Odo being the exception."

He snorted. "What do you know about Odo, Bashir? As far as I am concerned now, he is only one shape-shifter out of the hundreds of thousands in the Great Link. He won't be taken seriously anyway; I was a fool to think I could do what I did that day because of him."

"I've known Odo for years, including the last couple after the war ended even though he returned to his people," Julian said. "He's a good man no matter what his people have done. In fact, family is messy business. We all have had our shares, haven't we?" He was referring to his own estranged parents, Ezri's family problems herself and Vera involving her own, now Keevan and his people - the good doctor had a point. Family was messy.

 _"Keevan?"_

The communications screen had beeped and showed the face of a Vorta female with her hair cropped close to her head like Eris, her features sharper though, and her eyes as wide as Keevan's. "Hello, doctor," he said with a coy smile. "Never thought you would see my face again, did you?"

She visibly swallowed. _"But what if the line is traced? What do you want from me? I have not heard from you in almost seven months..."_

"Pardon me," Bashir interrupted, showing his face, "but we can discuss old friends and foes later. Dr. Sadara, my name is Julian Bashir, Chief Medical Officer of Deep Space 9, calling with Keevan here regarding an emergency involving -"

 _"The Crimson Shadow Virus,"_ she finished, guilt and regret mingled in her entire face and eyes. Both men stiffened and briefly looked at each other before back at her.

"You've known along," Keevan accused, betrayal and anger coming to light at the confirmation. Sadara was supposed to care for her patients, not subject them to a deadly disease, but it was the Dominion. Yutaron was obviously the one behind the making of the virus, but it would be too simple to name him as the one who authorized it. The Founders gave the permission, but there also had to be a very important Vorta to first authorize the research above the scientist.

Sadara bowed her head. _"I'm sorry, Keevan. The Founders did not want you to know, nor did they want me to tell you. I know it's hardly an excuse, but I'm not the only one to blame. Yutaron -"_ She paused and looked over her shoulder. _"Gentlemen, I really cannot be online for this long. I'll return when the day is over so the lines are safer, but know that Yutaron was the one who came to me after your assault, gave me the infected protein to put into your donated blood, but he was not the only Vorta."_

With that, she was about to cut the line off before Keevan halted her for one more second. "Sadara, the lives of both myself and my new wife are on the line; time is precious. Who was the other Vorta?"

Her answer was fearful, and Keevan could have sworn she was breaking out into a sweat any time soon.

 _"Weyoun."_

The screen went back to the Starfleet symbol.

"Weyoun," both he and Bashir said in unison, disgust evident - but then Julian halted and looked back at him.

"Weyoun 8 was killed by Garak when he and Colonel Kira captured the Female Changeling. The cloning facilities were destroyed, so he was the last. How could he be alive?" he asked. Keevan lifted a single shoulder in a shrug. Inwardly as well as outwardly, he trembled with rage as he should have guessed. How else could it be him? Weyoun was conniving, sickly sweet, but not uncommon in Vorta. It was why Keevan despised him for being a favorite of the Female Founder in their years of history.

"There was still a copy of his DNA information in the Gamma Quadrant, along with others of us," he answered, half-closing his eyes when he felt himself clench between the legs again. "Oh, Julian, could you help me stand? I think Vera is wondering where I am."

Julian helped him stand. "When Dr. Sadara contacts again, leave it to me, I promise. Don't you lose hope, and tell Vera I said so. I never give up on anyone - not even you two."

Keevan was startled by this passion. The doctor was disgusted with him with the incident four years ago, but now he was kind to him and helping him and his wife. Julian saw him as a friend, and he remembered swearing to have nothing to do with him, his wife, the others on this station - and Vera in the beginning. But now they all meant the universe to him.

~o~

"Vera."

She looked up when she saw him come into their bedroom. She was so tired she could not go into the shop today, and her mother was angry that she was losing her daughter every day. But Vera was keeping this secret for her own reasons, and to protect Keevan. Knowing her mother, Norah would curse at him for infecting her "child" and give that a good enough excuse to go to Colonel Kira to separate the bridal pair. She didn't want that to happen, and it made her wrench inside.

"Coming to bed?" she asked softly, moving over so he could crawl beside her and lean against her shoulder. He was more distant than she was, like he had failed in protecting her, and he was dying while she might make it. Tears pricked her eyes again and she wrapped her arms around him.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered.

Vera kissed his moist forehead. "I love you, Keevan. You didn't know about this. Stop blaming yourself." In truth, she was suffering more than he was and she knew it. She didn't want to lose him, trusted Julian with everything, but she loathed Keevan's people for doing this to him. If she had the power, she'd make them pay for this. But all she could do was spend whatever time left with her husband until Julian managed to get a trusting Vorta doctor without exciting the attention of the Founders.

"I was afraid to love, for so many reasons," he went on, resting his cheek over her breast and placing one arm around her waist. "I did not want to be hurt, and I did not want the other hurt. I don't regret falling in love and marrying you, but now I'm afraid again like I was then. I want to be here with you, but this ailment is taking me from you. I'm not a clone anymore, so I can't return to you in the end. I get one shot now like you do."

"Stop talking like this," she whispered sharply. "Stop feeling sorry for yourself and just spend more time with me now. I don't want to live in this nightmare anymore, and I want to believe there is a cure no matter what. We're both too tired to make love anymore, so let's just sleep in each other's arms." Keevan looked up at her and gave her another weak smile before raising his head to chastely kiss her on the lips and falling asleep against her steadily beating heart.

~o~

Julian Bashir once more was speaking to Dr. Sadara on coded transmission later when the day was over, when no one monitored the communications channel. "Hello again, Dr. Sadara," he said. "Now, Weyoun is the one who is responsible besides the Founders."

She nodded somberly. _"Of course, Julian - if I may call you that,"_ she added hastily, and he nodded. _"Weyoun is not a man to trifle with, as you know yourself. He authorized not only Keevan's sickness but three others before him. One was a female who died along with her partner; three more have recently finished their time. Keevan was the latest. The Founders can no longer conquer the Alpha Quadrant with the peace treaty, but they could experiment with the rebirth of the ancient Crimson Shadow Virus. But Weyoun thinks this is another construction of a new weapon for another attempted take-over, not the fact that it is going to eradicate much of his people's population as it almost did in the ancient times."_

Julian closed his eyes. So, the Founders were not as conquering as they used to be, so they must have decided to recreate an extinct Vorta disease to try and eradicate the people. Odo must be trying to stop them despite attempting to get them to live in peace with the solids to no avail thus far. That meant the Federation had to intercede now, no matter the peace treaty - which meant violating the truce. But there were two lives at stake, and might as well be the entire Vorta population no matter being engineered to serve...

"Doctor, Keevan and his wife need help, and if we can find a cure to this disease, maybe get our hands on Yutaron and destroy what has been done of the virus so we can prevent a spread of this throughout the Gamma Quadrant -" he started only for her to cut him off.

 _"Julian, it won't be easy. It means another war in violation of the treaty. I want to help Keevan, but my head will be had at Weyoun's order..."_

His brain finally began to get a hold of a new theory altogether. He began to suspect what if the Founders knew _nothing_ about this experimentation, that Weyoun somehow decided to disobey them - especially Odo - but then again he might be wrong, as Weyoun was too loyal to do such a thing. Unless Yutaron had concocted something that brainwashed Weyoun...

"Sadara, no time has to be wasted. An entire section of the galaxy as well as two people we both love most are depending on us. You need to gather as many of your trusted physicians and scientists to come immediately to Deep Space 9. And Odo - he is the only Founder you can count on."

Her thoughtful expression was enough to tell him she knew she could not argue further. Chewing her lower lip briefly, she nodded her agreement.

 **In Star Wars: The Clone Wars at some point as it has been awhile since I saw the show, there was a deadly virus on the planet Naboo being recreated that the Jedi and Senator Padme Amidala had to stop, called the Blue Shadow Virus. It was very deadly, killed the victim slowly. I had to use the name as inspiration. :) My boyfriend even said Crimson Shadow sounded badass and with a darker meaning behind it - and to me, crimson was a passionate color, tying with the sexual part.**

 **Now things are taking a turn for the worse, and the plot thickens. This is where "fatal" comes into the story title.**


	7. Chapter 7

**I'd just completed "A Red Sun Rises" and am now giving this one my full attention until completion. :)**

Chapter Seven

She was back in Julian's office the next day, sweating to her core. She still was not sure if she wanted a baby or not, but either way she would be devastated if she was still able to conceive or if the virus affected anything like her ovaries...

"Well, what are the results?" she asked Julian nervously when he came back with a stoned face - and then it broke out into a smile. That was enough to tell her the answer. She was worrying over nothing. She was still able to have a baby.

"But Vera, the matter of your husband..." Julian said, now shifting to sorrow. "I managed to contact a Vorta physician and discuss the situation, and she agreed to have her team over here in a few days soon. Odo will be here with her."

She remembered hearing about Odo from Colonel Kira and Ezri. He was estranged from his people after finding them after so many years of never knowing where he came from - until learning the Changelings were the malevolent Dominion, and he chose to remain with the Federation, falling in love with Kira Nerys who was one of his greatest friends since the beginning...it reminded her of Keevan and herself, in a way. "Julian, what did you find out?"

He sighed and sat down across from her, crossing one leg over the other. "Well, I don't know how to say this as easy as it can go, but the Dominion is certainly recreating the Crimson Shadow Virus - except it appears to be illegal that not even the Founders are aware of it. They seem to have a...rogue Vorta scientist defecting from them and trying to kill his entire race."

Vera gasped and sat up straighter. Just when she thought the Vorta could never betray their gods, unlike Keevan - now this was proof the Dominion wasn't as incorruptible as they wanted everyone else to believe. This...renegade infected her husband before he was banished here, left him to die... "Why would he do such a thing?" she asked, gripping both sides of the chair. "Someone tamper with his mentality in his genetic code?"

Bashir shrugged, a small smile only managed at the little joke before it returned to somber. "I wish, but there's no telling. What I have is mere theory unless proven. Dr. Sadara, the physician who has known Keevan for years, performed a blood transfusion following an assault by Jem'Hadar, and that is when the scientist gave her a sample of the virus to put into Keevan's blood so that it would run its course. He wasn't the only one, either; four more Vorta were dead before him. I do not know yet the maker's motives for this attempt at genocide of his own people, but that is why we need Sadara, Odo and anyone they trust that we have to."

She put her head in her hands and lowered her face. Another Vorta, a supposed loyal servant of the Dominion, attempting to murder his own people and for WHAT? She did not know for sure, but could it be because he thought this was the only way to save his people from the shape-shifters' rule? Or was he just plain insane? Was there even such a thing as a simply insane Vorta?

"I hope they can do something. Keevan doesn't have that long - and I don't think I do, either," she whispered. "If there's no hope, I'd rather die with him than live alone, forced to find another who can never compare to him."

Julian nodded. "Let's hope there is a cure before it's too late. I firmly believe with Odo in charge now, the Dominion will conduct a very thorough investigation into their traitor's illegal activities. There is no way they will turn on us again."

There was one other thing sure: this madman of a Vorta might not be alone. She would not sit around and play stupid if he didn't have help. "Julian, you think there's a possibility he had...help?" Vera asked.

He exhaled sharply and rose. "Actually, he has. Sadara said that...Weyoun, the Dominion ambassador, authorized the activity, but I highly doubt that the Founders are aware of this, even Odo. But I intend to find out from him directly. This man has a lot to answer for, that's for sure." He shook his head. "I do not know if this is worse or if the massacre of the Cardassians is - or even the occupation of Bajor."

Vera knew all too well about the Holocaust of the Depression Era, so to slaughter an entire race until there was not much left was never worse than any other - it was always the same. If this was the start of a third mass genocide in a short period of time, then this minor anomaly needed to be removed before it could spread.

Julian had said there might not be a cure but hoped there WAS. She was holding the Vorta doctor who told him this to that.

~o~

"Founder, thank you for allowing me to find you here!" Sadara panted as she bowed before him, having searched high and low for the one she was looking for. She had come all this way out here with her Jem'Hadar in tow to search for Odo, only to find him posing as a rock and eventually coming to stand before her.

"Rise up, doctor, and please call me Odo. You know how I detest being called a Founder," he said with a frown. She nodded.

"I apologize, Odo. I came here in great urgency because I..." She lowered her voice as there were Changelings everywhere, and she was risking her own life for her old friend - who was dying far from home, and his mate sick with him. But Dr. Bashir was not only urgent and desperate, but also demanding and caring as she was.

Yutaron was a traitor that she could have gone to the Founders anytime she wanted, but since he labeled her as the accomplice because he gave her the infected blood for the "little traitor" as he called Keevan, she was forced to keep her silence. Why hadn't she thought to go to Odo sooner, if Dr. Bashir hadn't suggested him? She despised Yutaron more than ever as their history was never the most decent. He had the gall to think he could trust her with his little secret and unauthorized experiments, recreation of the ancient Crimson Shadow Virus - with Weyoun's permission, of course. What had Yutaron done to him that he would grant it without question?!

"Doctor?" Odo questioned, interrupting her thoughts. "I'm waiting."

"I'm sorry. It's Yutaron. He's done terrible things that I had just spoken to an old friend of yours from Deep Space 9, a Dr. Bashir. Regarding one of our banished - Keevan, and his wife. It's not safe to speak it aloud when there are -"

The Founder's eyes widened that he began to get what she was trying to tell him. "Then we'll move to somewhere safer, like your shuttle. Tell me more inside, doctor. Whatever it is," he said as he led the way, taking her firmly by the forearm, "I intend to return to DS9 myself."

~o~

Dr. Sadara had spent the last hour telling him the most mortifying tales of treachery, secrecy and possible defection to Odo in her shuttle - and he felt like the weight had returned to his shoulders as it was time to return to Deep Space 9 where the old memories were waiting for him. He would end up seeing what changed, what hadn't - and seeing Kira Nerys once again as she made him promise her.

But mainly, it would be because of two souls on board dying of this revived, deadly disease that had been extinct for two centuries - the Crimson Shadow Virus, killing thousands of Vorta until it was eradicated. Now Yutaron, a brilliant Vorta scientist, had been secretly testing on a handful of his own people so he could take the lives of his own people, not just simply for research purposes or the surprise construction of a new weapon for the Dominion.

His motives were purely personal.

Odo closed his eyes as he sat in silence upon the doctor finishing her count. She was an unwilling accomplice in infecting the patients who had come to her for help only to be guinea pigs in this act of savagery. He should be brought forth to answer for his crimes, but that meant only his execution and a brand new clone activated. Odo could not terminate him permanently himself; he was not like the Female Changeling before him. His crimes were unforgiveable, but perhaps he should discuss this with Borath who oversaw the cloning facilities after the main task at hand was taken care of: if they had some semblance of a cure found, or some form of treatment, then grab it and head for DS9.

"The Crimson Shadow Virus has no cure, but Yutaron is known to make anything possible," Dr. Sadara was telling him as she helped him in calling forth all available physicians and scientists available. They were going behind the backs of the rest of the Changelings, but it was Odo who was their spokesman now. They could not take his powers away anymore than he could cure them of the disease a second time around. "And Weyoun -"

"Yes, he will not disobey me," Odo said in disgust. He could not believe the Vorta who was his chief aide whenever he left the Link could grant Yutaron permission for his illicit experiments - unless he had somehow been intercepted with mind control. Knowing Dr. Bashir, he wouldn't be surprised if the man suspected it, too, but where was the proof? Weyoun would not need to know the truth of their new mission into the Alpha Quadrant, but he would find out eventually. But it was not like he or his fellow Vorta along would question Odo, their Founder.

The other Changelings did not know about this destructive act of one of their own servants, but they would find out eventually, but not until after Keevan and his wife were saved. Keevan was an outcast and forbidden to return home, but he did not deserve this cruel punishment nor did he deserve to be taken away from a loved one. Odo intended to owe his old friends a favor this way as they still mattered to him above his own people. Sadara was horrified when he told her this. "Pardon me, but -" She stopped herself. "I shouldn't question you, Odo."

"I could use it. I hate all this simpering polite worship. I still wish you and the rest of your people could get it through we're not gods, just mortal beings as the rest of you even if we're not single-formed."

She gulped. "Keevan believes you are all not, and I was afraid to agree with him." Odo snorted. Well, at least one did.

~o~

The pains got worse, and it was the third day.

He was not going to make it any longer, and he felt it.

"Oh, gods..." He moaned in pain as he lay in bed, holding onto himself and his beloved wife next to him. She was hurting as much as he was, and she was not willing to leave him. But now they were surrounded with Dr. Julian Bashir as well as his wife Ezri, Nurse Jabara and Quark - but one person was missing as the couple lay ill in bed together, sweating and cramping but not willing to let go of each other.

"Vera, maybe it's time to tell your mother," Ezri started to say, but the redhead woman snapped at her.

"No, she'll try and separate us! She will NOT know about this."

"Vera, both of your conditions are rapidly deteriorating, and I'd hate to see your poor mother when she finds out too late!" Julian shouted, his patience just about lost. It was not like him to behave like this, but it was because of the fact that Vera denied her own mother the truth; Keevan understood very well why his wife would not let her know. He did not trust Norah any more than her own daughter trusted her.

Behind them all, the doors to the quarters beeped, igniting the irritation of himself and Vera, who shouted in a raspy voice, "Come in!"

"VERA!"

She groaned and leaned against him. "Oh, no..."

"I'll take care of it," Bashir assured her as he left the bedroom and dashed out into the main area to try and stall Norah Coleman from going nay further to try and see her daughter and son-in-law. Keevan's ears picked up every word as the visual attention of the others around him shifted to the doorway where the commotion was heard.

"Out of my way, doctor! I have to see my daughter."

"Mrs. Coleman, I apologize and I understand, but this is hardly a good time -"

"Damn it, my daughter does not come to work anymore, and I deserve the right to see and find out what is the cause...!" The woman finally came to the doorway and screamed angrily as she shoved the doctor's hand off of her until she stalked into the room, halting immediately and allowing her furious and shocked eyes to fall on the sight of her clearly ill daughter and son-in-law, both with bags under their eyes and paler complexions, sweating profusely and breathing labored. Her hand slapped over her mouth.

"Mom..." Vera's voice was hardly her own anymore, but it was still audible. "We're both sick. I couldn't trouble you with it; help is on the way, but Keevan is...dying."

Ezri nodded. "Mrs. Coleman, this has gone on for two weeks almost. Keevan was infected long before he came to the station but had no idea he had it until over a week ago. It's a long-extinct disease the Dominion..." But the mother did not want to hear anymore of it. She exploded with the fury of a mountain after a long rest.

"That excuses nothing. He defiled my daughter, and now she's going down with him!"

"Mrs. Coleman, if you would please calm down and take this rationally!" Bashir said angrily, trying to stop her again, but she struck him across the face. Keevan leaned into his beloved, loathing her mother on the spot. How could she be acting like this when her daughter's health as well as his were getting worse?

"No, I will not stand here while my daughter lies dying beside that THING!" She stormed over and grabbed Vera by the arm, pulling her to her feet and forcing her forward. "Vera, you are coming with me now so I can take you back home to Earth, get you a better doctor - and put that creature out of his misery!" she shouted when she turned her attention to Keevan, whose heart now shattered at the cruel words his mother-in-law lashed out despite her judgment.

She was taking Vera - she was taking his darling wife, the love of his life, who was as sick as he was, from him. She was screaming at everyone to leave the room before she called for the security team, and to keep away from HIM, the animal. He closed his eyes as he felt the liquid heat and immense pain as his heart exploded with grief that she was taking his Vera away and leaving him to die alone, heartbroken and sick.

~o~

"NO, MOTHER!" Vera screamed as she fought against her overbearing mother. "WE CAN'T LEAVE HIM ALONE! HE'S DYING AND HE NEEDS ME!"

Her arm was hurting her and she was on the verge of falling enough to be dragged on her feet in Norah's tyrannical grip. Her mother had snapped, gone mad and turned into an evil, heartless monster all because she would not see reason in her daughter's husband's unawareness of his illness. "That's enough, Vera," she warned as eyes were on them now as she dragged her daughter through the Promenade as they made way for Ops to talk to Colonel Kira. "I won't let you be near that monster anymore."

Vera finally found it in her to scream in rage and pull back, then drew her hand back and struck her own mother across the face. That was the first time she ever hit Norah, and when she did, her stomach was seized with a vicious pain that made her howl and clutch at her abdomen, then fell into Julian's arms, clutching him for dear life as her world danced with black and white spots. She was still wearing her silk tank and shorts, practically half-dressed but didn't care anymore. "No, Mother, I'm done with you! I hate you and I never want you in my life again! You can go back to Earth and maybe back to Father, see if he wants you now! I'm staying with Keevan because he's my husband, I love him and _he needs me!"_

"That is enough, you little bitch!" Norah shouted as she started forward, only to be rushed at and caught on either side by two Bajoran security officers. Colonel Kira Nerys herself was walking up the stairs and starting for them with a furious face.

"Mrs. Coleman, I would not try anything else if I were you. Your daughter will get medical care, but not by being taken back to Earth. Someone very dear to us all has just arrived to care for her and Keevan."

"Oh, who is it?" Norah spat as she tried to free herself with futile attempts.

"That would be me." All eyes were on a man who made his appearance. He was a Changeling, for his features were smooth and clay-formed, the best he could get to being a real man, and he was accompanied by a great group of Vorta men and women in medical gear, as well as a unit of reptilian warrior-like men with their weapons lowered for now. These were Jem'Hadar, the fighters for the Dominion. And a _Founder_ was here.

They were here because of her and Keevan.

"Odo," Julian said, still holding Vera up for support, "it's about time you and your crew came. This is Vera, the wife." He nodded at her, but Vera was too overwhelmed to say a proper greeting, recognizing him as Kira's former lover who rejoined his people as the war ended.

"Hi."

"Vera." He nodded his acknowledgement. "Where is Keevan?"

"He's back in our quarters," Vera blurted, tears coming free. "Please, he's in there all alone. You have to find him before he dies. You have to save us both."

 **It's really getting devastated each moment. :( E.T. was a wonderful movie that I never thought I'd use as inspiration until I started brainstorming this entire story which I am so far proud of as always.**


	8. Chapter 8

**When it came to me just like that the fact Weyoun was mind-manipulated by Yutaron to give him permission to start the experimentation, it was all so he would not speak to the Founders and ruin everything for the scheming scientist. I could not take ths ubject of mind control too lightly, so I did some research and was surprised to know it had not been changed to fit today's (DS9) standards from the twenty-third century. It was stated that "mechanical mind control is beyond the generally available technology of the twenty-fourth century", which meant within the Dominion, it had to be out of everyday tech. Even the Vulcans' methods were limited.**

Chapter Eight

"Vera... _Vera_..."

 _Vera..._

He was alone, the warmth of her soft body against his and her sweet scent gone, taken by her ruthless mother and their friends trying to stop her but failing. He tried to keep his hopes up that Colonel Kira was doing her part now, knowing what little of her, and praying his wife would come back to him before these inhuman pains took him away from her, but now they were slowly ending, except that did not make him any stronger now...

Death was taking its sweet time, now shortening his agony, but it would not be long in coming now. He feared if he closed his eyes, he would not awake again before Vera was back - he wanted nothing more than to just remember all the happy times they shared...

"Keevan, I'm here."

He was laying on his side and facing the door, looking up and seeing a familiar figure in soft gray, accompanied by the face of a Founder - _Odo_ \- and a few more Vorta. "Sadara...Odo..." Keevan whispered, closing his eyes finally, briefly, and one of his best habits as it was a small source of comfort for himself. "I thought you'd never come."

He looked up at her, his old friend and doctor, reading every inch of her face; she loathed the fact that Norah Coleman, the bride's mother, took her daughter away from her dying husband with a lack of rationale and burning personal hatred. Sadara nodded for her colleagues to gather around and help him out of the bed. It was time, it seemed. Keevan barely felt himself being removed from the bed, smelling strongly of perspiration and incoming death, and he was laid onto a stretch slab to be taken to the infirmary where his wife had to be now. He looked up at Odo, the most benevolent of the Founders and the leader of them now - his past loathing was forgotten now as he was no longer considered a despise - but then he saw the face of the one that Sadara named as the main grant to the thing eating away at him inside.

"Weyoun - you -" He could manage no more as his senses were fogged over.

~o~

Odo could not bring himself to look at Weyoun when the Vorta looked at him. He and Bashir had spoken in privacy that his chief Vorta aide might have been mind controlled, but even if he was, then he might not be consciously aware of his own actions; there was no telling because in today's terms, mechanical mind control was beyond the technology today. Yutaron was very clever with his ways that he would be held and dealt with accordingly.

"Odo, forgive me for asking, and I apologize for my ignorance, but Keevan is -"

"He is ill, yes," Odo answered. "Dying. I believe you already know yourself what the cause is." He looked at the Vorta long and hard, watching as the other man took a slight step back.

"The Crimson Shadow Virus."

"And you were the one who authorized it," Odo said sharply. "Without consulting me about it. Why?"

"I had no idea, and I apologize."

"Weyoun, I had thought we made an agreement to confide and trust each other the moment I ordered you activated when the war was over and saved your genetic template," Odo said angrily, hands behind his back. "You could never betray your Founders or your own people - do you realize now what you might have started now that you know four Vorta are already dead and a fifth one will be a new addition very soon?"

"I didn't realize I'd set my own people up for a genocide, Odo!" Weyoun insisted, hands held up and clasped together in a plea. "I beg you, Odo, I do not know how I agreed to this, only that Yutaron came to me, and I wasn't aware of anything else other than saying yes to what he asked of me and that I never, under any circumstance, go to you and confide in you first..."

So, he had been manipulated neurally somehow, and that called for Dr. Bashir's examination immediately. Yutaron had thought of everything, he thought disgustedly. He might have been crafty, but he was sloppy in the end and didn't realize it. This was the last error he would ever make, justly. He could have him stripped of his practice and made into a lower-level scientist, but right now he needed Weyoun's help to make this mistake right by helping the latest of one of his own he unwittingly helped infect and leave to die. But that was not the only mistake he made.

"You thought we would even attempt to take over the Alpha Quadrant again. Even when a treaty is signed between our people and the former I once served."

"It was what Yutaron confided in me, claimed that he had already spoken to one of the other Founders and was upmost confident in. Approved that Vorta were perfect given our history. A small part of me issued the warning bells, but something was holding me back from realizing that there was more than meets the eye. Odo, I know saying I am sorry is nothing, but I will do anything to right this grave error. I want to find a cure for this disease he brought back. I do not know why I did not see he wanted to murder our entire race."

Odo growled to himself and started walking away, Weyoun coming beside him. "Well, it's a good thing Sadara confided in me. Yutaron defected; he's a traitor and he will answer for this. The doctor and her colleagues are working to do everything they can. Vera will make it through - but we must hold onto the fact there is still hope for Keevan, no matter his own history of betrayal."

Weyoun nodded. "Keevan is nothing like Yutaron. I see that very clearly now. The Founder is wise in all things," he said, looking up with a small smile that Odo returned.

~o~

She and her husband were placed on separate bio-beds in the same room, but their clothing had been removed so they were placed in long white gowns, their vital signs monitored and kept hydrated to the machines.

Vera was aware of everything going on around her, from hearing the Vorta physicians around her and being aware that she was being poked and prodded with needles and such, forced to not look at her husband while she was treated; why did they not see that Keevan was the love of her life and meant more to her than her own health?!

The Vorta had not been made to love, he told her a long time ago, compassion from doctors to patients hardly much of a substitute in place of what he had for her. They were only doing their jobs, nothing more. She wondered if they still hated Keevan after what they might have found out about the truth behind this disease - namely who gave it to him.

"...female...human...stabilized...collagen levels low seventy percent...temperature dropped by fifteen percent to normal..."

A part of her was angry at being called a "human female", as if she wasn't even a being. Good, she was getting better - but she could not say the same for her beloved beside her, whom she was now allowed to slowly turn her head over to look at. Keevan's skin had grown to a point of resembling ashen, and he had lost some weight more than her. She could almost see his rib cage, and his chest was rising up and down with each shallow breath she took. By God, she wanted to hold him one last time, seeing his signs on the machine: he would not last in another hour, or less.

"Keevan?" Vera whispered, reaching out to him, hesitating and drawing it back as she feared she would get reprimanded for even the slightest movement to disturb the other patient. But nothing happened; everyone seemed too busy to even care about her holding her husband's hand. "Keevan, my love, I'm here," she croaked out.

His eyes had been closed that he managed to hear her and looked over in her direction. His beautiful purple eyes, once filled with life and passion, were darker and bordering on the kind of purple when the sun went down - symbolic of life ending and darkness overtaking. His light was going to diminish while her own would be bright again - how ironic, cruelly ironic. "Vera," he whispered back, feebly lifting his own hand in her direction, his fingers latching onto hers without trouble, but his hand felt much smaller in hers in both weight and physical appearance. "Don't let me go..."

"Don't _you_ let _me_ go," she corrected, wanting so much to kiss him, too. "I won't let you go as long as I live. I promise...I'll never love again. There will never be another one like you, Keevan."

"Love is very...powerful. It's what separates the Founders from the rest of the solids, with Odo being the exception."

She almost jumped when she looked up and saw the same Vorta female beside Odo when he had arrived. She was leaning close enough to keep her voice low for Vera's ears only, but who knew how many other Vorta were listening - Keevan was looking at her, too, whilst keeping his wife's hand in his. "Doctor...?" she asked, furrowing her brows.

"Sadara."

"Sadara. How do you know that?" she asked quietly.

She shook her head. "I don't know because my entire four lifetimes have been to care for my patients, because all lives are counted on - but never have I truly believed in what I am seeing in you both now. Odo has been preaching that there can be no living without love, something his own people are struggling to see beyond their own kind. He says not all solids are terrible, and he is right. No one is truly utopian, and it never will be. I want you both to know that if I had it in me to fully believe it - and I know you both do - it would be the simple fact that the only healing source in all things is love. True, powerful, and unstoppable."

~o~

Julian admitted he was partly surprised to encounter Yutaron, the rebel scientist, so soon especially when he was supposed to be helping with the terminally ill Keevan and Vera, but Sadara had it under control and did not want to be beside Odo when he confronted her traitorous colleague. Odo had wanted to spare her the trouble by not having her testify for now. His intentions now were to bring this to the public attention as it was no longer a private matter, and the Dominion would not be as it once was. It would become a fair trial for him even if Yutaron's actions were heinous.

"Yutaron, this is most grievous and inexcusable for a Vorta," Odo said angrily. "I spent all my years with the Federation making sure anyone like you is made to serve our justice, and since there will be a new Dominion near completion, I'll make sure it serves the same way the Federation does. Which is what I think is suitable for your crimes against your own people. Just what did you hope to accomplish?"

The Vorta scientist was straight-faced, his features consisting of a rounded nose and a slim face, his eyes an extremely dark, malevolent shade of purple - the irony. Sometimes even the most brilliant of minds could betray their ideals and what their people stood for personal reasons. "My people have long been enslaved by the Founders for millenia, Odo, but there was no other logical way to ensure that we would ever be free. It has been two years since the war ended, and how have we improved? Keevan had demonstrated that it was impossible, so I could only think of the one sure way to free the Vorta."

Julian seethed and took a step forward. "By murdering your own people? And then what? Save yourself for last? What good would that have done the Dominion if they lost their Vorta? The Crimson Shadow Virus was eradicated for a reason by the Founders' order. You were well-respected for creation, but now you're resorted to taking life!" He wasn't the judge and jury, but he despised this man for taking the lives of four and now a fifth very soon. "Have you even found a cure for this thing if it even occurred to you?!"

"Of course not, Bashir! I already tried to concoct one, but the Crimson Shadow Virus has no antidote. There never was then, and I couldn't even make one now, not even if there was a chance."

"You're a murderer, not even as close to a scientist as I am." He looked up at Odo when his old friend spoke.

"I concur with Dr. Bashir. As your Founder, I will order the project terminated, but your fate will be decided once we return to the Gamma Quadrant."

Yutaron scoffed. "And what about Weyoun and Sadara? They played pivotal roles with me, Founder," he sneered. Keevan was not the only Vorta known to see that the Changelings were not gods.

"You mind-controlled Weyoun and you blackmailed the doctor!"

Bashir's comm badge beeped. _"Nurse Jabara to Dr. Bashir."_

"Go ahead," he said, turning away from the rogue Vorta and from Odo. He went rigid and had the feeling Odo did as well.

 _"We're going to need you back down here in the infirmary. Vera is alive, but Keevan..."_ She trailed off right there. _"It's critical. He's destabilizing."_

~o~

 _The grass was very subtle, soft, beneath their bared backs. Overhead, the sun shone down on them as they lay with their bodies on opposite ends but their heads facing each other, and she reached for him with her right hand, grasping his right in return, never letting go and promising she would never abandon him as long as she was alive. The sun began to shine brighter, blurring everything, and she could no longer see his handsome face smiling at her, catching the horror in his eyes as they were being parted by the natural sun which could never be stopped any more than -_

~o~

"KEEVAN, DON'T GO!"

The room was in a flash as it all happened so fast. The machines began to beep rapidly as the signs went down. No blood pressure, no oxygen, no heartbeat - nothing. He was going away, but none of the doctors were giving up, and Dr. Bashir himself hurried to rejoin them all.

"All right, charge up the paddles!"

Vera wanted so much to scream they were killing him this way, but she was not in the best of judgment form, and could only sit up and watch in horror as her husband was given more oxygen with a mask strapped over his face, the front of his gown torn open to show his bare chest and abdomen so the electrical paddles were brought over; in response, his body flip-flopped like a fish on land, which was common. She closed her eyes and turned away; she found herself against a warmer, feminine body and immediately looked up to see Ezri there, and Colonel Kira was in the doorway along with Quark and his nephew who had to be there. Who knew where Odo and the rest of his unit were, but all she could think of was Keevan dying beside her, and the doctors doing everything they could to save him - but it was all no use in the end.

"Damn it, we were so close..." she heard Dr. Bashir mutter, disdained and furious - as well as grief-stricken. "I don't want to give up now -"

"Julian, we don't either, but we did everything we could," Sadara said, mournfully and softer than he was.

Vera leaned into the crook of Dax's neck and began to sob. She held onto the Trill and let her broken heart tear into millions of pieces as it had happened. It all happened even though she and so many of these people around her she loved as family and friends had high hopes despite the bleak truth.

Keevan was dead.

 **I'm so sorry everyone is hurt, but it's not the end. :( I said this was based off of E.T., so don't lose hope.**


	9. Chapter 9

**So, without forcing it - and I know I didn't as it's a gut feeling - this is the last of this story I had a blast doing. :) Read and review, as always.**

Chapter Nine

The group of doctors - both Vorta and human - surrounded Keevan's body, unhooking him from the machines and disconnecting the medicinal cords from his veins. The oxygen mask was removed from his mouth, exposing a pale face that looked like he was sleeping instead of dead. But he was so melancholy, so alone. Failed even though everyone around him tried to save him - even when the virus that he succumbed to was too incurable.

Looking over Keevan's peaceful face, Ezri felt a pang of grief of her own.

She was still holding onto Vera as she continued to cry for her lost spouse. She remembered how Worf roared his anguish when his wife died before him, and she could imagine losing Julian one day, or him losing her. The both of them - her and Vera in her embrace - knew what it was like to lose someone you loved. She massaged the grieving redhead's back as she watched as Vera's husband's corpse was wrapped in a blanket. His face remained uncovered, however, so she could have the chance to look at him one last time before he was taken away back to the Gamma Quadrant.

Julian was standing there, shaking his head and running his fingers through his hair, the failure inexcusable in his mind. He then then turned away and made way to be beside them. "Vera, I'm so sorry," he said softly, reaching over and putting his hand on her shoulder. She jerked at the contact but held onto Dax. "I wish there was something I still could have done."

She raised her head from the crook of Ezri's shoulder and looked up at him. Her eyes were red and swollen, her cheeks puffy and shining with tears. "There was nothing to have done," she choked. "We all wished there was something to be done - but there wasn't."

He sighed and nodded. "I don't know if there's any consolation for you in this, but Yutaron will be back home, too, facing his crimes and the Crimson Shadow Virus is to be destroyed, according to Odo. I don't know what will happen to him, though, but it'll be just."

Ezri lowered her eyes to the floor. Vera must be having vengeful thoughts of her own, but didn't speak them aloud. She wanted Yutaron to pay for what he did, but she wasn't a soldier or a justice system member. Ezri understood how she felt, but revenge did not solve anything. It wouldn't bring her husband back, either. "Am I allowed to see him before they take him?" she asked softly, pulling herself away from the Trill.

"We won't take him for another few hours, but you may spend as long as you want with him," Sadara said as she came up to them, her sensitive ears picking it up. She nodded to her fellow Vorta, who were all carefully picking up Keevan's wrapped body and taking him out of the infirmary.

~o~

How could life be so CRUEL?

She had been so happy, but it was for a short amount of time. She was cheated on and divorced the first time, then her second time was a chance for true happiness before he was cruelly taken from her by one overtly insane member of his people - she almost died herself, and now she wished she really was. She got the feeling she would never be happy.

She was looking over the face of her husband as he slept peacefully and would forever. She ran her hand across his forehead, feeling the cold, clammy skin and now-coarse curls against her fingers. The circles under his eyes remained, and the shine of sweat on his body had dried up. His lips appeared to be cracking. Vera bowed her head and felt the tears well.

"How?" she croaked. "How could this happen to you - to _us_? To think it didn't seem like this would happen, but it _did_. Why couldn't we have the happiness we deserved after everything that's happened? It's like we're both...jokes in the eyes of the universe, no matter where we go. You showed me I could love again, and I showed you that love existed and made you stronger.

"You remember the first day we met - well, I remember before that, when I saw you for the first time. You were almost attacked by a mob of angry residents of all races because of who and what you were, but bless Colonel Kira for saving you. Then it might have been luck to know you lived across the hallway from me, and not many days later, I made you my grandmama's peach pie and brought it over to you, because I was the first person to welcome you to this station and treat you like a person instead of a monster, an outsider. Because you deserved it." She laughed a little. "You couldn't taste it, only said it was filling, and you liked the texture. I was the first and only friend you ever had, and you were everything I wanted in a man; we started out as friends because we were both scared of wanting more, that falling in love was a mistake. But we were both proven wrong when the months went by and then we one day kissed for the first time, after the first dance we ever shared. A song that, now that I think about it, paralleled to us and what we would soon have. It was like it was meant to be.

"And then, weeks later, you manned up and said you wanted more, asked me to marry you - to which I said yes, and then we got married on Earth, where it was all perfect. I remember the wedding night where it was your first time with me, and I'd not been with another man since my first marriage ended...but either way, we had something special." Her heart stopped beating right then and there. "But after it all, after we had only just gotten back from our honeymoon on the wondrous Casperia Prime, it was nothing but misfortune. And now, you're...look at what _he's_ done to you, my love! To US!"

Keevan would never truly hear her words, nor would he ever open his eyes and smile at her, reach up with one hand to touch her cheek, pull her down for a final kiss. So Vera was the one to lean down and kiss his dried, cool lips one last time, whispering to him one last time.

"I love you."

Her throat clenched a little before she managed to force the words from her throat, from the song of their first dance: " _Come, my love, our worlds may part. The gods will guide us across the dark. Come with me and be mine, my love. Stay and break my heart. From the shores through the ancient mist, you bear the mark of my elven kiss. Clear the way; I will take you home to eternal bliss."_

With that, she gave him one more kiss and then reached for the blanket, drawing it over his face to give him his peace, then turned to leave the area.

~o~

Odo had been outside the room, listening to every word the grieving widow said to her husband's body, feeling himself melt inwardly, the best way to put it as he was not solid. Weyoun was with him, watching curiously and understanding even if he might not be able to form the attachment. He shook his head; the Vorta were still adherent to the forbidden attachment code the Founders long held over their heads. But Keevan proved that it was impossible.

"It's impressive, Odo," he said after a moment. "How two people can be so strong together, endure all obstacles..."

"But do you even know what it is like to cherish them as though they are a part of you - only to lose them in the end?" Odo asked sharply. "Are you even capable of that, Weyoun?"

The Vorta looked at him with wide eyes for a moment before bowing his head. "O-oh, I don't - I never considered it wise. I don't even know if it is the right thing to feel these attachments..."

Odo sighed in exasperation. "Weyoun, this is nothing to be ashamed of, nothing to despise and forbid. My people were wrong to oppose this on their servants. When you see someone and it doesn't matter who or what they are, it's indescribable, but you know for sure that it is utter bliss that makes you happier than you could ever remember - and you never want to let it go. You never want to let _them_ go. I wish I understood why it was so forbidden in several cultural cases, including your own, but when you mate and bind yourself to one physical being, it enhances the strength of your every being. Myself and Colonel Kira - I may have left her to rebuild what my people have torn down and remade out of fear, hatred and domination, but I still love her more than I did then."

Weyoun's thoughts might as well be seen all over his face. He was reconsidering whatever - or should Odo say, _whoever_ \- it was that he had do change his mind and go for what he personally wanted for himself, but he didn't even need his Founder's permission all along. "Who is the one on your mind?" he asked his aide. "The both of you have your...god's blessing -" He had to force the word out as much as he didn't want to. "- to be together."

Weyoun's lavender eyes lit up. "Eris." A smile lit up his face that Odo returned it.

"When we return to the Gamma Quadrant, you two are going to do a great deal in convincing the others as well."

The ambassador nodded before halting. "But, what about...Keevan? His template was to have been deleted, and -"

"But was it?" Odo questioned.

Weyoun shook his head. "Not at all. As you know, Borath loves all of his subjects as they are his own children, much like Sadara cares for anyone who go to her for treatment. If I'd known Borath any better, I'd say he saved Keevan's genetic date." Odo nodded, taking a look at the figure now passing by them and without a second glance. Vera was done with spending her time with Keevan's body, no longer looking back and not even knowing her husband could be brought back again. He considered telling her just to ease her pain, before he decided to surprise her with bringing Keevan back and sending him back to the station. He looked at Weyoun, seeing that the Vorta knew what he was thinking.

"Odo, she won't be let down."

~o~

Vera had not been well ever since her husband died two weeks before. In those days she quit her job and became a wreck and old shell of who she used to be, as far as she could see of herself. She still ate and kept herself in shape, but it was not the same without her Keevan.

Perhaps this was what she wanted. Everyone around her said it was not healthy to just be laying around, or sitting around, avoiding those around her. She had not spoken to Ezri since her husband's body was taken away, nor had she spoken to Julian or anyone else - even her mother who had realized how deeply she wronged both her daughter and Keevan, wanted Vera to forgive her. Would she ever?

No. Never.

Her mother had always made clear her dislike; how could Vera let that go do easily? She wasn't there for Vera when she succumbed into the abyss of grief and water. She didn't want to see Norah again, but her mother tried to see her countless times. If only she could have had a restraining order issued or if Norah would respect her wishes!

There were nights she would lay in the bathtub, closing her eyes and wishing she could duck her head underwater, then drown herself so she could be with Keevan in the next life. That is, IF the Vorta believed in an afterlife. Everything about them was based on science and not idyllic beliefs - they did believe the Founders were gods, but gods never walked amongst mortals. Vera would always pull her head out from underwater, gasping for air as nearly suffocating herself was a release of tension.

And then, on the last day of the second week, her quarters were buzzed once again. She screamed in anger. "Come in!" If it was Norah - "Oh, Ezri!" She fell back onto her sofa, turning her face away from the Trill. "I thought you were my mother."

The counselor laughed a little. "We haven't spoken for weeks and that's the first thing you say to me."

Vera still could not look at her. She did want her friends, but how could she go on with life after losing her one true love? "I'm sorry, as too easy as it sounds," she said, leaning over the armrest and putting her head on top of it. "I really don't know what to do with my life anymore. Keevan is gone, so what do you and everyone else expect me to do?"

She had never pushed friends away before; grief always changed you, it seemed. Never in her life did she lose someone she loved before, save for her grandparents when she was still a child. But when it came to the one you were supposed to spend the rest of your life with, it was a much deeper matter entirely. With what Ezri told her about Worf losing his wife, her predecessor Jadzia, she could imagine what the Klingon must have gone through.

"Vera, I know what you're feeling, and I'm not saying it just because I'm your friend." She felt the weight of the couch shift as Dax sat beside her. "As someone who isn't close to her mother either, I don't like her any more than you do, but you've been harsh on everyone as of lately. Including me. We were letting you have all the time to yourself, but this just...isn't healthy for yourself. You have all the time to grieve all you want, but you're too young to keep yourself locked up in here."

"Worf did much better than I did!" Vera countered as she finally glared up at her friend. "He was strong, and I'm not! I was wrong to think I was! I never thought love would hurt so much, but it does! I wish I...never fell in love again." She wasn't sure if she meant it or not, but now that she did, she wished she could say yes because she might be young for her age, but everything crashed down so damned easily...

The quarters buzzed, but she did not feel like answering, instead turned away from the door, leaving Ezri to answer for her. "Come in."

The doors opened, from her hearing, and there was Julian's voice. "I'm sorry to interrupt, ladies, but someone wants to see Vera," he said.

"I don't want to see my mother, thank you very much," Vera snapped, and if it was, she would scream to the high heavens...

"Not quite. Someone much better."

That VOICE...

She shrieked and jumped up, falling to the floor and avoiding the table altogether, looking up as she sat upright on her knees. Standing behind Julian was none other than... "I'm sorry, beloved," Keevan said, a small smile showing, "but it took them awhile to get my cloning template back into place with the others, as well as overseeing Yutaron's trial, but here I am now. They thought it best to surprise you with my return rather than speaking to Colonel Kira to notify you herself."

They brought him back...they let her to think he'd never come back for two weeks - and here he was in their quarters and standing in their doorway! Vera wanted to scream in anger that he did this to her, but it wasn't his fault. Joy flooded through her, and the tears rolled down her cheeks with lightning speed as she leaped to her feet. "Oh, Keevan!" she squealed, jumping on him and into his arms for him to spin her around and kiss her wildly, whirling around before tumbling to the floor together in front of their friends who were both laughing before the doctor sat beside his wife on the couch to watch the other couple fall to the floor in front of them.

Vera laid on her back, now oblivious to the other two, gazing up into her husband's amethyst eyes again; his happiness was as evident as her own was. Now she could forget about her promise to remain a widow for the rest of her life, because nothing would ever part them again for a much longer time to come.

 **This story came out exactly as I wanted it to be - short, sweet, straight to the point, and very deep at the same time - and what better to include "Tir Na Nog" when Vera sings to her dead husband in the beginning? :) Now I'm giving my attention to a new collection of oneshots in a single story which will be called "Tales of the Kama Sutra", and very soon I will bring forth the third and final in the Vorta Brides Trilogy, "Yelgrun and Lynet: Chosen for the Marriage Bed"; its predecessors are "Weyoun and Mia: His Enemy's Daughter" and "Keevan and Annora: Forged in the Desert Heat".**


End file.
